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THE JOURNALISTS OF THE IfflTED STATES, 



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IN BEHALF OF JUSTICE AND THE PEESS, 



IS HOPEFULLY IUSCEIBED, 



BY THE AUTHOR. 



Isaac Claris tt*y 



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..Stomrond Tm '^ 



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history which draws a portrait of living manners, 
may perhaps be made of greater use than the so- 
lemnities of professed morality, and convey the 
knowledge of vice and virtue with more efficacy 
than axioms and definitions. 

Samuel Johnson. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The histories of individuals and of nations would not be 
what they are, had a truly Christian spirit inspired and 
animated men in their intercourse with their fellows, and 
with the world and its circumstances. Enmity and friend- 
ship, self-interest and idolatry have colored every record 
of the progress of minds and governments, so that the 
lineaments of Truth have been deprived of those exact 
proportions which inflexible Justice alone has the power 
to unfold. To err in judgment in one of two extremes is 
natural — and he only who has the rare power of watching 
his own proclivity to praise on the one hand, or to censure 
on the other, can hope to thread his way with safety 
between the mental Scylla and Charybdis. 

The author of these pages has sought no person's coun- 
sel upon his theme or its mode of treatment. Neither 
Mr. Bennett, nor any one connected with him, -has been 
consulted, either directly or indirectly, with respect to 
the writing or publication of these Memoirs. In truth, 
the execution of the work is a spontaneous act of literary 
justice, which it is hoped will carry along with it internal 
evidence of this fact, and not a few valuable lessons. 

Certainly, the work has been prepared with so little 
aid, except from published writings, and a protracted and 
patient study, that it bears in its own features a very 
positive compliment to the man whose mind and industry 



INTRODUCTION. 



have left such marked traces of his progress through the 
thorny ways of Journalism, as to furnish ample materials 
for a history. 

It would have been easy, had circumstances permitted 
and he been willing, for Mr. Bennett himself to supply 
some points in his career which he alone can justly elu- 
cidate, but the desire of the author has been to be free 
from influences which might arise from personal inquiries, 
the object being to show how the Editor of the New York 
Herald appears in the light of his own public works, when 
taken in connexion with certain facts which were derived 
some years since from personal observation. 

The result is before the reader, who has the means 
within his own power to form such an estimate as may 
suit his own mode of judging the acts of his neighbor. 
Had Mr. Bennett been a less abused man, these Memoirs 
might never have been published ; but there is a compen- 
sating principle in the mental and moral, as well as in the 
physical world, and it has been brought into action from 
its own inherent force, with what success time will deter- 



mine. 



The original intention was to embrace in this volume 
sketches of the principal journals and journalists of the 
United States, together with historical records to illustrate 
the progress of American thought and civilization. Ano- 
ther volume is in preparation to do justice to the subject, 
and in that work Mr. Bennett's contemporaries will receive 
the attention which is due to their public usefulness. The 
period at which the contemplated work may be published 
will depend upon the interest excited by the labors 
attending the present effort in the cause of the most 
powerful institution of a democratic government — an 
unshackled Press. 



CON TENT IS. 



CHAPTER I. 

1800-20. 
Highlands of Scotland — Banffshire — Duff House — Gordon Castle — New 
Mill, Keith — Scenery, and its influences — Inhabitants of Keith — Saturday- 
night — The Bible — The Bennett, or Benoit family — Earl of Tankerville 
— Birth of James Gordon Bennett — Rev. James Gordon — Catholic semi- 
nary on the Dee — Aberdeen— "Walter Scott — Glasgow — Dr. Chalmers — 
Emigration to America — Decision to embark — Arrival at Halifax — A 
school teacher — Portland, Maine — Boston — Scenes of the Revolution — 
Dorchester Heights — Ways of Providence — A proof reader — Juvenile 
verses — Description of Boston — Loan to a countryman — Ingratitude — 
Source of slanders — Residence — The Kean insult and riot in Boston — 
True account of Kean's flight — Joseph T. Buckingham — Boston Press — 
New York Journalists of 1820 — Mr. Bennett's residence in Charleston, 
South Carolina — Early lessons, 25-46 

CHAPTER II. 
1820-23. 
Circumstances necessarily to be considered in estimating character — Mis- 
souri compromise — Slavery nationalized and denationalized — Opening of 
the slavery agitation — Historical facts — Colonization — Liberia — Anti- 
slavery movement — James Monroe, President — Mr. Bennett's permanent 
commercial school — Announcement — National Advocate — Quarrel of Mr. 
Noah with the proprietors — History of the case — Sale of the Advocate — 
New York National Advocate — Enquirer, when commenced — Quarrel 
with business men — Tariff of 1824 — Change of opinions — Bank ckartere 
— Lobbying — Building -with stone — American museum — Innovations un- 
acceptable — Actors of this period, 47-57 



XVI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IIL 
1825. 
Novelties — Cotton speculations — The city a lottery office — Lotteries — 
Thunders of the Press — Libel suits — Street fights of New York, Boston, 
and Philadelphia — Election of John Quincy Adams — Electoral votes — 
Administration of President Adams — Restoration of the Jews — Grand 
Island — Mr. Noah's proclamation as Governor and Judge of Israel — Mr. 
Bennett's references to him — New York Courier — John Tryon — Sunday 
Press — Samuel Jenks Smith — Mr. Bennett and the Courier — Mr. Bennett's 
industry — First Italian Opera in New York — Sontag — Alboni — La 
Grange — Garcia and his daughter' — Mr. Bennett's account of the debut — 
Farewell of Malibran — Her death — Italian Opera — Financial panic in 
Great Britain — Character of the Joint-stock Companies there — The 
amount of capital embarked — Results — Panama congress — Monroe doc- 
trine — Service of plate to De Witt Clinton — Erie canal, . . . 58-69 

CHAPTER IV. 
1826. 
The financial panic of 1826 in New York — Jacob Barker and Henry Eck- 
ford — Quarrels with Mr. Noah — Life and Fire Insurance company — Its 
condition and liabilities — Trial of conspirators — Sun Fire Insurance 
company — Morris Canal bank — United States Lombard association — 
New Jersey Protection and Lombard bank — Sixty-six millions of capital 
to be chartered — Mr. Bennett's opportunities for knowledge — His posi- 
tion — A suggestion — Report of the trials — Fiftieth anniversary of the 
Declaration of Independence — Thomas Jefferson and John Adams — In 
death not divided — Their political writings — Mr. Bennett becomes known 
to the Press — Cooper, Conway, and Macready, 10-11 

CHAPTER V. 
1827. 
Young men in the political field — Utica convention — "William H. Seward — 
Sale of the National Advocate to the Adams party — Mr. Bennett's 
retirement — Martin Yan Buren's early friend — Noah's Enquirer — W. G. 
Graham — Duel and death at Hoboken — Strange verdict — Duelling prac- 
tices — Tammany party — Its history — Henry Eckford and Hugh Maxwell, 
the District Attorney — Eckford's statement — Inflammatory publications 
— Indictment — District Attorney in the Grand Jury room — Trial of eight 
persons — Complaint against the District Attorney's conduct — Trials of 
1826 — Result — Condition and position of the Press — Mr. Bennett at 
Washington — His studies — Style of composition — Politics — Rush's report 
on the tariff — Wines and teas — Inveterate tea-drinkers — Squint-eyed, but 
not squint-hearted — John Wilkes — Freedom of the Press — New York 
Journalists — Bankruptcy law — Greek cause — Public amusements — Per- 
formers, . 78 88 



CONTENTS. XV11 

CHAPTER VI. 

1828. 
Mr. Bennett's devotion to the democratic party — Studies — Investigations 
on the literary acquirements of public men — Spelling — Correspondence — 
Habits — Visit to Virginia — Tariff — Calico printing in the United States 
— Editorial quarrelling — A specimen — Duelling — M. M. Noah and E. J. 
Roberts — Personal chastisement for offences — Mr. Bennett's unsuccessful 
attempts to harmonize the Press — Miscellaneous subjects — Edward 
Everett — Robert Walsh — Improving Journalism — Economy in buying 
hickory wood — Government expenditures and extravagance — Necessity 
for reform, 89-98 

CHAPTER VH. 

1829. 
The Presidential votes — Financial position, imports, exports, public debt — 
Paper currency — Mr. Bennett in Washington — Inauguration ceremonies 
— The political parties — Love of democracy — Mr. Bennett's position and 
avowal as a republican — Political slanders — Won't stay scratched — Jour- 
nal of Commerce — Unition of the Courier and the Enquirer — A vacation 
— Philadelphia letter to Jesse Hoyt — Origin of the Washington Globe — 
Washington letter to Jesse Hoyt — Courier and Enquirer 's certificate for 
Mr. Bennett — Albany letter to Jesse Hoyt — Charter of the United States 
Bank — War between Russia and Turkey — Number of newspapers in 
New York — Mr. Bennett becomes associate editor of the Courier and 
Enquirer — Reply to the charge of being a foreigner — Dramatic litera- 
ture — Copyrights — Woodcut advertisements, 99-112 

CHAPTER VIII. 

1830. 
Christian party in politics — Rights of the church even to blood — Hard 
names for James K. Polk — Quarrel between James Watson Webb and Duff 
Green — An editor's secession from Journalism — An editor addresses a 
legislature — Albany Evening Journal established — Good enough Morgan 
— Sunday travelling — Arrest and incarceration of a lady — Anti-auction 
crusade — Difficulty between President Jackson and Vice-President Cal- 
houn — Proscription of Northern editors by the Senate of the United 
States — Agrarian party — The Salem murder — Boston — Salem — Nahant 
— East India curiosities — Mr. Bennett's opinion on captains — Concord 
visited — Franklin Pierce — The trial at Salem — Privileges of the Press — 
The Press the living jury of the nation — Interdiction of the Press by the 
Courts — Lowell and its factories — The three days of July, Charles X. — 
Death of George IV. — Marriage of Mrs. Morgan — At Washington again 
— Charles Kean, A. A. Addams, Signorina Da Ponte, .... 113-123 



XV111 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 
1831. 
Betting upon elections — Journals proposing and accepting wagers — Mr. 
Bennett's return from Washington — Articles on the Bank of the United 
States — Article of the 5th of February — Safety Fund System of banking 
— Bolivar's death — Knowledge of events — Sale of part of the Courier 
and Enquirer to M. M. Noah or Silas E. Burroughs — A veto on Bank 
opposition — Mr. Webb and the Quaker's bribe — The Press — Rupture of 
President's cabinet — Mrs. J. H. Eafon — Trip to the valley of the Mo- 
hawk — Little Falls — National Anti-masonic Convention — Free Trade 
Convention — Death of James Monroe, July 4th — M. Chabert, the Fire 
King — Tariff convention — Democratic festival — Mr. Bennett's position 
and his toast — A rampant Jackson blockhead — Boston Morning Post — 
What an editor ought to be — Express in fifteen hours from Washington 
— News boats — A hoax upon the association of journalists — Mademoi- 
selle D' Jack — Seeing the Elephant, 124-135 

CHAPTER X. 
1832. 
At Washington — William L. Marey — The governorship — Martin Yan Buren 
— Nomination as Vice-President — Certificate of character — United States 
Bank articles and their authorship — Editorial position in the Courier and 
Enquirer — Editorial quarrels — Reports on the United States Bank — 
Opinion of John Quincy Adams — Ownership of the Courier and Enquirer 
Its course under Mr. Webb's control — Mr. Bennett and the democratic 
party — Mr. Bennett's letter to the editor of the Standard — Important 
facts — Mr. Bennett's letter to Mr. Webb — New York Globe — Events of 
the year — Finale to the New York Globe — Mr. Bennett's narration of his 
connection with the Courier and Enquirer, 136-150 

CHAPTER XI. 
1833-4. 
Mr. Bennett's contributions to the literary journals — Popularity as an 
author — Contributor to the New York Mirror — A specimen: Two 
Yards of Jaconet, or a Husband, 150-159 

CHAPTER XII. 

1833. 
Mr. Bennett's removal to Philadelphia — Purchase of the Pennsylvanian — 
Loan of twenty-five hundred dollars — The Yan Buren party — Compli- 
ments of the Globe — Mr. Bennett's letters to Jesse Hoyt — Jesse Hoyt's 
letters to Mr. Bennett — Attempt to obtain the required assistance — The 
disappointment — Yan Buren's friends and friendship — Political advice 



CONTENTS. XIX 

and not a little scolding — Reply on the independent principle — Deposit 
question — Globe reads Mr. Bennett out of the party — Case summed up — 
Consistency towards Van Buren's interests, after receiving injury — 
Origin and cause of the intrigue against Mr. Bennett — Letters in the Phi- 
ladelphia Enquirer on the kitchen cabinet — Waiting for a turn of the 
tide — Pride wounded — Journalism prior to 1833 — Literary periodi- 
cals, 160-177 

CHAPTER XIII. 
1833-35. 
The Penny Press — Horatio David Sheppard — Morning Post — The father 
of the Penny Press — Benjamin H. Day — Pioneers on the Penny Press — 
Newspaper distribution — Sale of routes — The Sun — Transcript — Man — 
Working Man's Advocate — Morning Star — Philadelphia Ledger — Balti- 
more Sun — Morning Despatch — Sale of the Sun — General facts, 178-185 

CHAPTER XIV. 
1835. 
Anderson and Smith — James Gordon Bennett & Co. — New York Herald — ■ 
"Wall street — Habits — Jealousies — Great fire in Ann street — Forged docu- 
ments — Discoveries in the moon — The hoax — Opinions on the science of 
Herschel — Treatment of the Penny Press by its neighbors — Boston 
Herald — Boston Times — Five hundred dollars to begin anew with — 
Experience of politicians and parties — Satire — Mock messages — News — 
Political topics — Animal magnetism — Phrenology — Express companies — 
Harnden — Adams — Pickford & Co. — Dramatic celebrities, . . 186-196 

CHAPTER XV. 

1835-6. 
The war of Journalism — Advertisements — Loco-foco matches — Pills and 
dancing parties — Popular medicines — Matchless Sanative — Ayer's Cherry 
Pectoral — Cerevisia Anglicana — Threatened attack — Penny wisdom — 
Code of courtesies for journalists — French Indemnities — Mr. Webb's 
assault on Mr. Bennett — Declaration of independence — Brief history — 
An opinion of Mr. Bennett — H. Hastings Weld — Helen Jewett's murder 
— Silly accusation — Libels — Verbal crimination — Poole and Morrissey — 
A duty of the Press, 197-213 

CHAPTER XVI. 
1836. 

■^ Second assault on Mr. Bennett by Mr. Webb — The Sphinx of Journalism — 
Falsehoods and assaults — Bachelor's sin — Age of the Press — Civilization 
— An affected age — Reply to two Scotchmen — Nativity — Perpetuation 



XX -CONTENTS. 

of nationalities — A charmed existence — Originality of character— Reli- 
ance on Providence — The Graham assault — The Press — Negro minstrelsy 
of Journalism — The Black Swan — Literary taste, 214-226 

CHAPTER XVII. 

1836-7. 
Maria Monk — Price of the Herald increased — The Hamblin attack — Pur- 
pose of Mr. Bennett — Frederick Hudson — Who is Ariel ? — Influence of 
that sprite — Prospero — Interesting interview between Joseph Price and 
Mr. Bennett — Men not so bad as they seem — Card of Mr. Price — Gene- 
rosity to a fallen foe — Encouragement and assistance, . . . 22*7-232 

CHAPTER XYHL 

1838. 
Insurrection in Canada — Texas scrip — Cilley and Graves duel — Arrival of 
the Sirius and the Great Western steamers — Enthusiasm of Mr. Bennett 
on this event — Labors as a writer — Embarkation for England — Devon- 
shire — Screw propellers— Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton — Embarkation for 
Scotland — Edinburgh — Emotions — Robert Forrest — Influence of the 
gowans— Children at play — Aberdeen revisited — Byron — Beattie — Bal- 
gounie's brig — Approach to Keith — Isla — New Mill — Duff House — Home 
found again — A mother's love — Interviews — Catholic church — Soliloquy 
— Farewell — Rest at Aberdeen — Maternal Influence — Glasgow — Paris — 
Brighton — Return to New York — Atlantic steam navigation — Corre- 
spondence — Independence — With the people, 233-252 

CHAPTER XIX. 

1839. 
Southern tour — Nicholas Biddle — William H. Harrison — Political sagacity 
— Sam Houston — Texas — Public morals — Taste of the people — Winfield 
Scott — The presidency — Herald's influence — Murders in New York — 
Satire — Boston and Saratoga visited — Mr. Cunard — Hartford visited — 
Suspension of specie payments — Sir Robert Peel — Anti-corn-law league — 
American corporation credits, 253-260 

CHAPTER XX 

1840. 
Philadelphia banks and their suspension of payments — Defence of the course 
of the Herald — Daily express from Washington — Burning of the Lexing- 
ton steamer — Presidential election — William H. Harrison — Reports of 
speeches — Success — New journals — The moral war — Tactics of the oppo- 
sition — Moral lightning — Modification of style — Mr. Bennett charged 



CONTENTS. XXI 

with being a pedler — Reply — Hand grenades and bomb shells — Strange 
contest — Religious views: — Death of Cosmo Bennett — Items in the ac- 
count — Mr. Bennett's political tactics — Reforms in society — Selfishness 
the basis of improvement — Philanthropy — Quarrels for opinion's sake — ■ 
Censures on recrimination — Astor House — Charles A. Stetson — News- 
paper abuse — Atheism and religion — Bible — Influence of it on style — 
Virgin Mary — Charitable donations — Marriage — The Crean family — 
Mrs. Bennett — James Gordon Bennett, Jun. — The Heralds themes — Let- 
ters from Magara Falls, 261-282 

CHAPTER XXI. 

1841. 
Mr. Bennett charged with bribery — Finance — Loss of steamer President — 
Death of Harrison — National Bank — Subjects treated upon — JohnHughes, 
the Catholic bishop — American citizens — Texas, railroad to the Pacific — 
Diplomatic questions — Undermining of the political parties — Political 
deterioration — Herald reporters at Washington — Senate rules against the 
Herald reporters — Henry Clay appealed to— Mr. Bennett's letter — Mr. 
Clay's reply — Forged and false reports — Illinois State bonds — Forgery 
of Mr. Bennett's name — Pseudo-democracy — Commercial panics of 1825 
and 1837 — Evening Star — M. M. Noah — Correspondent of the Washing- 
ton Madisonian, 283-295 

CHAPTER XXII. 

1842. 
Murder of Adams — Somers mutiny — History of the former transaction — 
Colt's conduct — Condemnation — Day of the execution — Result — Spencer 
on board the Somers — His fate — Conduct of the Herald on the Court 
Martial — Classes of society — Bankruptcy law — Publication of schedule a 
libel — Charles Dickens — Rhode Island war — Libels on James Fennimore 
Cooper originate in a political combination — Criticism — Tyranny of 
opinion — Thomas* F. Marshall's duel with Mr. Webb — Cigars — Wit — 
Tour to the Lakes — Ashburton treaty — Moral and physical aspects — 
Immigration — Aliens — Mormonism — Political parties estimated — Insulted 
— Code of honor — Foreign Quarterly Review — Reply — Internal power of 
the Herald — Cheap publications of the year — Their origin — Lancet — 
Government printing — Biography, 296-320 

CHAPTER XXIH. 
1843. 
Circulation of the Herald, what it was and what it is — An assassination and 
a murder — Second essay of the Foreign Quarterly Review — Mr. Bennett's 
reply — Shakspeare as a journalist — Inventors — Sir Robert Peel — Daniel 



XX11 CONTENTS. 

Webster — Presidency — Libel on Mrs. Bennett — President Tyler's tour- 
Mr. Bennett with his family sails for England — Editorial correspondence 
— Dublin — O'Connell's attack on Mr. Bennett — Mr. Bennett's answer 
addressed to the London Times — Again at home in Scotland — Family — 
Illness — Sympathy of the people and Press of England and Scotland — 
Mr. Bennett's letter to the New York Herald — Paris letter — Kachel — 
Return to New York — Labors continued — Condition of the world — 
Presidential election — Native American party — Morse's electric tele 
graph, 321-842 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

1844. 
O'Connell affair explained — The Stockton gun — Catastrophe — Philadelphia 
riots — Native American party's growth — Catholic vote — The most dan- 
gerous man in the country — Protection of character — Sale of editorial 
space — Money articles — Attention to financial subjects — Onderdonk trial 
— Ecclesiastical trials — Polka — James K. Polk-^Journals of short-lived 
existence — Empire Club — Progress of the Herald, 343-355 

CHAPTER XXV. 

1845. 
Modern biography — Whiskers — Jem Grant — Anti-rentism — Thomas Skid- 
more — Radicalism — Frances "Wright — Tribune — Mr. Bennett's views on 
social and political reform — Henry Clay's defeat — Inauguration of James 
K. Polk — Treaty with China — Oregon question — Magnetic telegraph, and 
its influences — Enthusiasm and labors of Mr. Bennett — Patron of art and 
literature — Acting — Edwin Forrest — Death of Andrew Jackson — Great 
fires in 1845 — Roorbacks — Calumnies on public men — Mexican war fore- 
told — A law without the President's signature, 35 6-3*71 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

1846. 
Boston journals — Expresses — Their history — Effect on commercial affairs — 
Improvements — Journalism — Holy alliance against the Herald — Last ex- 
press — News by electricity — Telegraph lines — Mr. Clay's speech at Lex- 
ington, Kentucky — Washington topics contrasted with those of New 
York — General Taylor's army of occupation — Duel at Richmond, Vir- 
ginia — California annexed — Mr. Bennett bearer of despatches to England 
— Mexican war — Railroad to the Pacific — Public topics — Lady Morgan — 
Visits to the old Continent : Switzerland, Italy, Istria, Hungary, Bohe- 
mia, Saxony, and Prussia — Taglioni and Cerito — Grisi and Mario — Mont 
Blanc— Niagara Falls — Style of thinking and expression, . . 3*72-885 



CONTENTS. XX111 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
1847. 

Mexican war — Famine in Ireland — American contributions for the Irish 
people — Speculation in bread-stuffs — Residence in Paris — Presented at 
the court of Louis Philippe — Costume — Correspondence of Mr. and Mrs. 
Bennett — Modern art — Condition of Europe — Studies for the political 
philosopher — Parisian statesmen — Press in Europe — Press of Paris exa- 
mined — London Press — Influence of Herald — Another visit to Scptland — 
Commercial revulsion in Great Britain — Railway speculations — Elections 
in England — Parties — Bribery — Condition of Great Britain — Facts — 
Character of Mr. Bennett's European correspondence — Improvements in 
the Herald establishment, 386-403 

CHAPTER XXYHI. 

1848. 
Year of revolutions — Zachary Taylor nominated for the Presidency — 
Changes in European governments — Revolution in France — Flight of 
Louis Philippe — Opera house — Hundred dollar bribe disposed of — Cor- 
respondence on the subject — Treaty between Mexico and the United 
States — Incarceration of Mr. Nugent — Code of New York — Discovery of 
gold in California — Mr. Bennett's views on the subject — Cheap postage — 
Macready riot — Collins steamers — New York Herald and London Times — 
Walter and Bennett — Companions — Mr. Bennett's genius — Founder of a 
new school of Journalism, 404-416 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

1849. 
Inauguration of Zachary Taylor — Journalism — Annexation of Cuba — Presi- 
dent's proclamation — A Southern man — Advertisements — Horace Gree- 
ley's evidence in the House of Commons — Cobden's reply — President 
Taylor's cabinet — Mr. Bennett's letter to General Taylor — Reply — Mr. 
Clayton — Topics of the season — Journalism — Right of journals to refuse 
advertisements — Theobald Mathew — European politics— Journalist of the 
people, 417-429 

CHAPTER XXX. 

1850. 
Right of search — Facts — Monroe doctrine-r-Drury trials — Warner torpedo 
— Dangers — Forrest divorce case — Galphin cabinet — Compromise mea- 
sures^Slavery — Not sectional — Nashville convention — Spirit of the 
Herald — Action in Massachusetts — Death of President Taylor — Activity 
of the Herald — The war of the Crimea foretold — British navy list — Facts 
— Sir Charles Napier's declaration — Jenny Lind, Parodi, Catherine Haye§, 



XXIV CONTENTS. 

music, and art — Difficulties attending criticism — Mr. Bennett visits Cuba 
— Invasion by Lopez — Payment to one of his comrades by the Herald 
establishment — Private charities — Considerations in forming a judgment 
— Review of the condition of society — Prospects of the United States of 
America, 430-451 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

1851-2-3-4. 
Expedition to Japan originated by the Herald — Canal enlargement bill — 
Arrival of Louis Kossuth — Course of the Herald — Reflections — Another 
European visit — Franklin Pierce — Mission to France — Temperance, Anti- 
slavery, and Know-Xothing movements — Xext presidential election — 
Agitation of moral themes — Fernando Wood — Police system, . 452-459 

CHAPTER XXXTT. 
1855. 
A day in the Herald office — Morning hours — Editorial rooms — Newspapers 
— Mr. Bennett's mode of editing — Conclusion of the morning's work — 
Visit to his associates — Hints — Talk with the conductor — Purchase of the 
site occupied by the offices — Apartments — Occupants and assistants — 
Sentiments — John Quincy Adams — Reformers — Operation of the Herald 
on the public mind — Expositions in finance — Edward "W". Hudson — 
Church and State — Future of the Herald — Brief resume of Mr. Bennett's 
history — Character — Phrenological survey — Slanders — One man's power 
— An enthusiast in Journalism — Alien to the soil — Design of this work — 
Hopes for Journalism — The conclusion, 460-488 



JAMES GORDON BENNETT AND HIS TIMES. 



CHAPTER I. 

At the close of the last centur y, the Highlands of Scotland 
were marked by little of that enterprise now apparent there 
in trade and agriculture. Large tracts of country were held 
by heritors, or lords, whose lands were feued, and who could 
exact from tenants services at once onerous in themselves and 
withering to industry. 

In some regions, the inhabitants were more blessed than 
their neighbors by the enlightened action of the lords of the 
soil, and the shire of Banff enjoyed the growing reform as soon 
and as extensively as any other district of the North. 

Banff contained several proprietary residences, but the prin- 
cipal ones were Braco, or Duff House, and Gordon Castle — 
the latter a princely estate, celebrated as the home of the Gor- 
dons, and distinguished for its miles of parks and its wealthy 
appliances, while the former was celebrated for its architectural 
peculiarities and many objects of interest within its walls, as 
well as for its hospitality and the lordly possessions of its pro- 
prietor, the Earl of Fife. 

It was within the very shadow of Duff House that the father 
and mother of James Gordon Bennett reared an interesting 
family, the members of which will be noticed in the course of 
these pages. They lived at Old Town, as it was then called, 
but as it is now designated, at New Mill. 

2 



26 HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND. 

This locality was a part of Keith, which, in the last century 
had been a vicarage. It belonged to Lord Fife, but it was not 
included in his feued property, which extended to the New 
Town of New Mill, a place where a village has been erected 
within the last fifty years. Keith is not far from Banff, the 
county -town ; and near it, at the foot of the hill, is Duff House, 
erected upon an extensive lawn, and commanding a complete 
view of the picturesque vale, which is encircled by hills of 
romantic beauty, enshrined by the genius of history. 

Sixty years ago, the general aspect of nature in Banff-shire, 
in particular, was not refined by that culture which now im- 
parts the beauty of industry to the fields, and wealth to its 
inhabitants. In its original, romantic, and wild scenery there 
was much more to excite an ardent and enthusiastic tempera- 
ment than at the present hour. Cultivation has the power 
to soothe the natural ardor of youthful emotions ; where it 
does not exist the soul feels few fetters and is subjected by 
little allegiance. 

A boy trained fifty years ago in the scenes around the resi- 
dence of the Earl of Fife, if born with a mind capable of being 
excited by noble passions, could not but imbibe the inspirations 
which belong to the power of nature, and are impressed upon 
man by the magic of her livery. There were the glens, the 
lawns, the woods, the hills, the mountains, and the varied 
streams, which, in silver characters, engrave their graceful 
beauties on the page of that volume which is never closed to 
the memory. 

The very rocks echoed with traditions of man's early strug- 
gles : the light, lisping sugh of the trembling leaves of the 
forest whispered of perished ambitions ; the ruins of lordly 
towers rested in their crumbling darkness against the remote 
sky of the fading past, as it gathers its decreasing glories into 
the starry forms which illumine the night of antiquity ; the 
dateless tombs of the nameless dead, in cairns, or barrows, or 
in unsculptured stone coffins, aroused conjecture by some 
buried symbol of human prowess that had endured beyond 
the ashes with which it was entombed. Upon the lawn, or on 



LAND OF SONG AND STORY. 27 

the hill, the air was vocal with a hymn consecrating all hon- 
orable human effort, while the dull round of that daily toil then 
known in Banff, muttered only of the insignificance of modern 
ambition as contrasted with the incitements to great achieve- 
ments which glorify the past. There, too, the unaided voices of 
nature were choral with melodies from the unfrightened song- 
sters of the majestical woods. The pheasant in the autumn, 
the field-fare in the winter, and the plover in the spring, 
added their interest to the drouthy, babbling brook, to the icy 
stream, or to the bounding flood and torrent, as the seasons in 
turn ushered into the heart's existence the animating summer 
of the soul. 

In such a scene of natural beauty, associated with the trials 
of man's virtue and valor, and with the mutations of his weak- 
ness and wants, what else could be expected from a nature 
sensitive to impressions which stimulate the intellect than an 
aspiration for something higher than those unintellectual occu- 
pations which engrossed the activity of the inhabitants 1 What 
scenes of natural grandeur can be imagined, which could have 
more favorable charms for a glowing fancy, intellectually 
trained, amid the traditions and histories of a vigorous and 
warlike people 1 A land of song and story, everywhere filled 
with unnumbered points on which the thrilling legends of 
early trials, wrongs, and struggles, could not have been less 
than a delightful home to any youthful mind liable to take its 
coloring from the examples of antiquity, as the light of heaven 
itself receives hues from the mediums through which it is trans- 
mitted. 

In singular contrast, however, to these sources of inspiration, 
there were at Keith, and all through the region of the Strath 
(called Strath Isla, Stry 'la, from the river Isla running through 
it), evidences of the necessity of a dull, unromantic, practical 
life, the tendency of an association with which was to curb 
the exuberant imagination, and to prepare youth for the stern 
combat with the realities of the work-day world. 

The children in many of the towns of the shire of Banff attend- 
ed the manufactory and the school alternately at stated hours, so 



28 INHABITANTS. 

tliat industry and education were united, as has been attempted 
in the United States within a few years, though with com- 
paratively little success. In Keith, the inhabitants toiled 
chiefly in weaving stockings, and in dressing flax, besides 
engaging in the occupations of a market-town, a brewery, and 
tannery. 

The people in 1795 were principally Protestants of the 
established church, living a peaceful life, uncontaminated by 
close association with the world; but there were not a few 
Catholics, and a large chapel for public services in that 
neighborhood. 

The inhabitants of Keith had no religious controversies, 
however, but appear to have been animated by a commendable 
spirit of toleration, all enjoying in the education of their chil- 
dren together the benefits of the school in the town. Even 
the Catholics were not deprived of the Bible, but reared their 
children in familiarity with its wisdom as a matter of duty, 
inculcating the value of it as a book not only for Saturday 
night and Sunday, but for every day in the week. 

The Bennett family were Catholics, yet every Saturday 
night they assembled for the perusal of the Scriptures, realiz- 
ing the picture so forcibly depicted in the language of Scot- 
land's long neglected yet now idolized poet, Robert Burns. 

" WT joy unfeigned brothers and sisters meet, 
An' each for other's welfare kindly spiers : 
The social hours, swift- winged, unnoticed fleet ; 

Each tells the uncos that he sees or hears ; 
The parents, partial, eye their hopeful years ; 

Anticipation forward points the view, 
The mother, wi' her needle an' her shears, 

Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new ; 
The father mixes a' wi' admonition due. 

" Their master's an' their ^stress's command, 

The younkers a' are warned to obey; 
'An' mind their labors wi' an eydent hand, 

An' ne'er, tho' out of sight, to jauk or play — 
An' ! be sure to fear the Lord alway ! 

An' mind your duty, duly, morn an' night, 



VALE OF THE ISLA. 29 

Lest in temptation's path, ye gang astray, 
Implore his counsel and assisting might : 
They ne'er ha' sought in vain that sought the Lord aright.' 

" The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face, 
They, round the ingle, form a circle wide! 
The sire turns o'er, wi' patriarchal grace, 

The big ha' Bible, ance his father's pride : 
His bonnet reverently is laid aside, 

His lyart haffets wearing thin an' bare — ■ 
Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide, 
He wales a portion with judicious care ; 
And 'Let us worship G-od,' he says, with solemn air. 

" Compared with this, how poor Religion's pride, 
In all the pomp of method and of art, 
"When men display to congregations wide 

Devotion's every grace, except the heart ! 
The Power incensed, the pageant will desert, 
The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole ; 
But haply in some cottage far apart, 

May hear, well pleased, the language of the soul, 
And in his Book of Life the inmates poor enrol." 

Such were the influences which surrounded a youthful mind 
in the little vale watered by the Isla ; and, added to these, 
there were, within a distance of four miles, many other objects 
and scenes of antiquity and natural beauty to charm and 
heighten the imagination, and to cultivate the taste. It is 
easy to imagine that any youth, fired by the traditions and his- 
tories of men, and contemplative in his disposition, would 
drink in the inspiration inseparable from such a home ; and 
whether he stood in the great temple of nature, in the broad 
glare of the day's light, that gilds every object with golden fire, 
or at night in contemplation, beneath heaven's vault, beheld 
the stalactites of stars flash through the vast cave of night 
their variegated fires reflected from the perpetual, distant torch 
of day, the associations with a locality so enriched, must have 
been valuable to an enthusiastic spirit. 

More than this, the habits of the people throughout the en- 
tire district were simple ; it may be said that they were almost 



30 THE BENNETT FAMILY 

pastoral in their character. Of the few families which were 
elevated above the condition of the shepherds and farmers, 
one was that of the Bennetts. It is said that their ancestors* 
the Benoits, had emigrated from France — that they once lived 
upon the Seine, and were of the train of a nobleman of the 
home of Gordon, who established his seat in these lovely regions 
of the North of Scotland. In a visit to France, a few years ago, 
Mr. Bennett saw the home of his ancestors. It is called Tan- 
kerville, and is situated in a beautiful reach of the Seine, about 
ten leagues from Havre, nearly opposite Quileboeuf. 

Mr. Bennett, several years ago, had occasion to reply to 
some newspaper attack on his family, when he touched the 
subject of ancestry with his usual peculiarity of satire. He is 
too much of a republican to enlarge upon the debt he may 
owe to his forefathers. 

"Every record of the Bennetts was lost in a great freshet, 
previous to the year of our Lord 896, when they were a little 
band of free-booters in Saxony. I have no doubt they robbed 
and plundered a good deal, and, very likely, hen-roosts, or any- 
thing that came in their way. They emigrated to France, and 
lived on the Loire several hundred years. When William the 
Conqueror went to England, they were always ready for a 
fight, and crossed the seas. The Earl of Tankerville is a 
Bennett, and sprang from the lucky side of the race. 

" Another branch went to Scotland with an ancestor of the 
present Duke of Gordon (1836), and all, I believe, were robbers 
on a great scale. Latterly, however, they became churchmen, 
but never abandoned the good old Catholic church, till I became 
graceless enough to set up for myself, and slap the Pope and 
Bishop Dubois right and left. I have had bishops, priests, 
deacons, robbers, and all sorts of people in my family ; and, 
what is more, we were bright in ideas, and saucy enough in all 
conscience!" 

The father and mother of James Gordon Bennett had three 
other children, Margaret and Annie, still living, and Cosmo, de- 
ceased. They will be noticed again in another chapter. James 
Srordon Bennett was born at New Mill, Keith, in Banffshire 



SCHOOL DAYS. 31 

about the year 1800, probably, and remained at tbe school in 
Keith till he was fourteen or fifteen years of age, when he went 
to Aberdeen, where he resided for two or three years, attending 
a Catholic seminary there, where, like his brother Cosmo, he 
was educated for the church. 

At the time he was born, the Rev. James Gordon was the 
spiritual director of the Presbytery of Strathbogie, and it is 
reasonable to suppose that he was named after that gentleman, 
who was connected with the family of Castle Gordon. He was, 
however, a Protestant. 

Of the earliest history of young Bennett, beyond the allusions 
to be found in other parts of this work, little more need be said 
than that he was a boy of good natural abilities, of a poetical 
turn of mind, enthusiastic, fond of solitary rambles, punctilious 
on points of honor with his school-mates, and full of self-confi- 
dence. His habits were good — he pursued his studies with 
zeal, and had an ambition to exeel in everything he undertook. 
His disposition was noble. 

A reference by himself to his student-life at Aberdeen, has 
been made in the annexed paragraph : 

" At a Catholic seminary which I attended when a youth, 
situated on the banks of the Dee, on the bosom of a range of 
dark heath-clad hills, our teachers mixed in all our sports — 
took part in every play — and would go down with us to the 
river, undress like the boys, plunge into the clear water, and 
swim away like dueks among the whole group. In music, 
dancing, playing, swimming, our teachers mingled with us just 
like brothers on a footing of perfect equality. It was only 
during the hours of study that the difference of pupil and pre- 
ceptor was visible. 

" Oh, those happy, happy days when I studied Virgil in the 
morning, played ball in the afternoon, and swam through the 
warm translucent waves, just as the sun receded from the eye, 
beneath the high dark mountains of another land." 

It appears that he began to put on the armor of manliness 
soon after he left his parents. In other words, he was inclined 
to think for himself. The history of the world had taught him 



32 AT ABERDEEN. 

the necessity of maintaining an independent spirit ; and, though 
he was a good observer of the Catholic externals, he could not 
be misled by the errors of Catholics or Protestants. He saw 
the faults of both sects ; and seemed disposed at all hazards, to 
break from the allegiance to which he had been educated. He 
has said that he used to sit by the river's side, and regret that 
the world is not blessed with one religion — one only sect. 

At Aberdeen he pursued the usual routine of college life, 
besides reading every book that he could put his hands upon. 
He belonged afterwards, also, to a literary club, which used to 
meet in the Grammar School, in the same room where Byron used 
to con his youthful tasks. The name of Byron was becoming 
familiar at that very time, and the members of this ambitious little 
club were stimulated by his celebrity. Indeed, it is quite evident 
that the history of Byron had no little influence on young 
Bennett's mind ; for he seems to have become not a little self- 
willed and froward, if his own account is to be received — and 
surely it will be, when the course pursued by him is reflected upon. 

He was but a boy when he broke loose from the restraints 
of school ; and owned no master except himself. The thought 
of being educated to sacrifice his independence at the dictation 
of the church was an annoyance to him. He seemed to himself 
to be destined to grapple with the world in a foot to foot and 
hand to hand struggle. Excited by the histories which he read, 
the scenes of Scotland's progress had a great charm for him? 
and in every vacation he travelled to behold the identical spots 
consecrated by the valor of the men of the past. While yet 
a boy, almost every celebrated spot within the area of Scotland 
had been visited by him. He left Keith in 1815, never to return 
to it except as a visitor. From that time to the period of his 
embarkation for America, he appears to have divided his time 
between his studies and travelling. The " Life of Benjamin 
Franklin, written by himself," and published in Scotland in 
1817, seems to have encouraged the disposition in him to seek 
his own fortune ; and the influence of the career of Napoleon, 
probably, was not slight upon his naturally ambitious and 
aspiring spirit. 



GLASGOW VISITED. 33 

Besides, the Waverley novels were then creating a great 
excitement injjjie literary world, and acted as stimulants to 
talent in every civilized country. Young men were dazzled 
with the growing fame of the author, and panted to enter the 
alluring but seldom lucrative paths of literature. It is known 
that young Bennett became an ardent reader of Walter Scott's 
works, for, as soon as he read, he travelled to the places which 
the pen of the novelist had described. 

The effect produced upon his mind by Bob Boy, published 
in 1817, was such that he visited Glasgow with great pleasure, 
probably in the summer of 1818, to examine the objects of 
interest celebrated in that story. A sketch of this visit is found 
among the published writings of Mr. Bennett, and will furnish 
a few facts of biographical interest. 

" I was once in the beautiful city of Glasgow, but it was 
only for three days. I went there to see the picturesque and 
beautiful. I wandered over the College grounds of that an- 
cient city for a whole day ; and I remember to this hour every 
nook and corner of that enchanting place so beautifully de- 
scribed by Walter Scott in Bob Boy. 

" It was about the period when that novel was first published, 
and a spirit of enthusiasm carried me to the very spot to see 
the scenes so accurately described by the then mighty unknown. 

" I also looked through the Saut-market, with all the adora- 
tion of youth for the creations of genius. I thought, in my 
youthful fancy, I saw Bailie Nicol Jarvie in every respectable 
looking merchant that toddled down that singular street. One 
man in particular caught my youthful eye. I gazed upon him 
with delight. 

" ' Oh,' said I, half aloud, ' that is the Bailie outright.' 

" ' Laddie,' said he, ' are you mad — you look scart — what's 
the matter wi' ye V 

" I blushed, and begged his pardon. 

" ' I thought,' said I, ' you looked like a friend of mine !' 

" From that place I went to the Broomielaw, I think it was 
called. There was Nelson's pillar, with the capital shoved one 
side by a thunderbolt. It was on a lovely Saturday afternoon 

2* 



31 DR. CHALMERS. 

The Clyde was transparent as a mirror, and here I first saw 
a steamboat, and could hardly believe my own eyes. 

" On Sunday I had an invitation to hear the celebrated Dr, 
Chalmers, who then preached in Glasgow. I went to hear him, 
What a crowd ! What eloquence ! What piety ! What deep, 
absorbing eloquence fell from the lips of that excellent man ! 

" On Monday I went to the wild ravine near the College, 
*md spent a whole blessed, beautiful afternoon ' in that burn 
brae ' — lounging on the green grass dreaming over the days that 
were passed — thinking of the sweet girls and lovely women I 
had seen the day before at kirk, and sometimes reflecting for a 
moment on the startling thoughts with which Dr. Chalmers had 
astonished his breathless auditory, and discoursed of the king- 
dom of his Redeemer. 

" In the evening I went to the theatre. I remember it as 
^ell as yesterday. It was a dull, empty, big, gloomy house. 
I got tired in a few half hours, and escaped to my lodgings, 
near the Trongate. I far preferred the kirk to the theatre, and 
Dr. Chalmers sank deeper into my mind than any player there. 

" On the fourth day of my visit to Glasgow, I left it with 
tears in my eyes, partly because I had not seen enough, and 
partly because I had seen a black-eyed girl too many. I did 
not then know much of Walter Scott, for he was comparatively 
unknown. His novels were just coming into notice. All Scot- 
land was getting mad, and even then I panted, at that early 
age, for the like fame and distinction which were then forming 
into a halo of glory around the great unknown. 

" Educated in the best and highest principles of morality, of 
virtue, of literature, of philosophy, my past life looks like a 
romance. Before I was twenty, I had wept the tears of joy 
over every consecrated spot in my own native land." 

The college buildings referred to are an interesting portion 
of Glasgow. They were established in 1450 by a bull of Pope 
Nicholas V. Situated on the east side of the High street, about 
mid-way between the cathedral and the Trongate, the double 
court of which they consist, at once invites the stranger's atten- 
tion. Behind the college is a park or common, interspersed 



INDEPENDENCE. 35 

with, hedges and trees, which in summer is always brilliant 
with grass. It is used by the students as a public walk, or for 
amusement. The Broomielaw is the name given to the bank 
of the river which adjoins the New Bridge, and reminds one of 
the old pastoral song of Ettrick Banks, in which a Highland 
lover assuring his border mistress of good cheer among his 
native mountains, asserts 

" At Leith comes in auld meal 
And herrin' at the Broomiela-w." 

The preaching of Dr. Chalmers at Glasgow probably exerted 
no small degree of influence on the future action of the boy 
who listened to him. 

If the mind of the youthful student had been dissatisfied with 
the constraints urged by his tutors, he was nerved for the step 
he was now taking on his own responsibility, by the bold 
preaching of a man who had revolutionized the religious preju- 
dices of a large portion of Scotland. At the time described, 
Dr. Chalmers had been at Glasgow only a short time ; and, 
wherever he preached, at the college chapel or at the Tron 
church, a crowd hung upon his eloquence as the bees are fabled 
to have clung to the lips of Dion, the Syracusan. He was 
then at the height of his fame, of his industry, and of his 
popularity; and his wisdom was deemed almost oracular, or 
inspired. 

Young Bennett having been a religionist of the Catholic 
school, but of too independent a nature to be curbed by mere 
dogmas and forms, must have been captivated with those views 
of religious freedom which belonged to the theology of Chal- 
mers. He acknowledges himself that he was deeply impressed 
by the discourse of the orator, and though he was at that 
period of life, when the mind trembles between the temptations 
belonging to the follies of youth, and the counsels proffered by 
developing manhood — and, therefore, subject to a mixture of 
emotions — yet he decided, at least, to possess mental inde- 
pendence — the ruling principle of his whole life, and the cause 
alike of all his misfortunes and of all his success — the former 



36 EMIGRATION TO AMERICA. 

being the necessary steps to the comparative state of repose 
involved in the latter. 

As far as can be ascertained, the enthusiastic lad, even then, 
had signified his intention to be no longer a charge to his parent. 
His education was sufficient to enable him to fly to it, as a 
resource in an emergency ; and though he was too much tempted 
to cultivate the acquaintance of the Muses, to grapple with the 
safer rulers ' of human destiny, yet he was prepared to 
undergo every peril and privation, to become a free man, sub- 
ject to no control, except that of his own taste and conscience. 

There was one circumstance, however, that was favorable for 
the future usefulness of the boy. He did not spurn the valu- 
able, lessons of history, or the mental and moral experience of 
philosophers. Besides, he was zealous to acquaint himself with 
the wisdom of the sage writers of every nation, and thus laid 
the foundation for following up their investigations, as he him- 
self grew older in a contest with the realities of practical life. 
Uncertain of the end to which his determination would lead 
him, he seems to have entertained dreams of visiting America, 
as a field that promised to realize something of the ardent anti- 
cipations of youth. At that time, the emigration from Scotland 
to the British North American provinces and to the United 
States amounted to a passion with the people. Sometimes a 
thousand persons would embark in a single week. This fever 
had its effect on young Bennett, and he was prepared to change 
the uncertain and doubtful prospects before him in Scotland, for 
the opportunities which might arise in a land more marked by 
enterprise, and more favorable to talent and industry. In 1819, 
between the 20th and 24th of May, seven hundred and thirty- 
three settlers from Scotland arrived at the port of Quebec ; 
and ten thousand settlers arrived at that port alone, during the 
same year. 

" My leaving Scotland," Mr. Bennett has said, "was an act 
of impulse — little judgment. I resided at Aberdeen. I had 
a few literary associates, imbued with the same tastes, and 
passionately attached to the same pursuits. I met one of them 
one day in the street — 



ARRIVAL AT HALIFAX. 37 

" ' I am going to America, Bennett.' 

" ' To America ? When ? Where 1 ' 

" ' I am going to Halifax on the sixth of April.' 

" I mused — I thought — I spoke ! 

" * William, my dear fellow, I'll go with you. I want to seo 
the place where Franklin was born. Have you read his 
life ] ' 

" On the 6th of April, (1819 ?) I prepared for embarkation. 
The vessel was to sail in the evening. All the morning, up to 
noon of that day, I spent on the banks of the Dee, where it 
unites with the oxjean. It was a beautiful, clear day. There 
was the ' Brig of Balgounie,' so celebrated in the Life of Byron, 
which every Sunday afternoon I used to cross and re-cross, 
lingering over the parapet, watching the eddies of the deep 
blue water, and gazing on the picturesque scenes above and 
below — the ancient round towers and castles around. The 
splendid poetry of Byron was, at that time, appearing in print. 
Another spirit of enthusiasm sprang up at the bidding of that 
wonderful genius. A passion seized the whole public mind in 
Aberdeen. He had resided there when a boy. The very form 
he used to occupy at school was known." 

Such was the rapidity with which the visit to America was 
decided upon, and soon the youthful adventurer was on the 
ocean, with his thoughts alternately turned to the East and to 
the West. He had no money, beyond a small purse which 
he calculated would defray his expenses for a few days, till 
employment could be obtained. 

After a somewhat tedious passage, Mr. Bennett found him- 
self in Halifax, where he commenced the labors of his new 
life by teaching. In this avocation, to which necessity rather 
than taste called him, he persevered awhile, but his experiences 
were not of the most agreeable kind. The schoolmaster was 
not esteemed at that day as at present. 

Among the incidents of this kind of life, one may be men- 
tioned that will illustrate the character of this young pedagogue. 
He had been engaged for three months in instructing a very 



38 THE SCHOOL TEACHER. 

dull boy in the art of book-keeping. When the term expired, 
Mr. Bennett, who needed the sum of ten dollars due for tuition, 
sent his bill to the mother of the lad for payment. In due 
course she called on Mr. Bennett, and with tears in her eyes, 
expressed her sorrow and regret that her boy had not availed 
himself of the opportunities for learning, which she, in her 
poverty, had decided to afford him. She spoke of the payment 
as a sad loss to her, and one which must give her no little 
uneasiness, but did not do so until she had settled the bill and 
taken her receipt. As she took her leave of the schoolmaster, 
he slipped the money he had received into her* hand, and with 
a few words of good cheer, bade her farewell. 

Mr. Bennett's necessities at this time would have been much 
lessened, by holding the sum to which he was entitled, but he 
contrasted his strength and ability to earn with that of the poor 
widow, and did not long feel his loss, poor and friendless as he 
was, and a stranger in a strange land. As far as is ascer- 
tained, the entire residence at Halifax was marked by a severe 
struggle for support, and it is not to be wondered at that he 
should have remained there only a short time, particularly as 
he was not on the soil of that country, to which his fancy had 
been turned, by reading the history of its political fathers, 
whose examples of heroism and patriotism had impressed his 
mind with no common enthusiasm. 

In the summer or autumn of 1819, he was in the province 
or territory of Maine, which did not become a State till March 
3d, 1820. He had made his way as far as Portland, probably 
in some coasting vessel, from Halifax; and from that point 
embarked in a schooner for Boston. He has described his 
emotions on entering the harbor, and the transfer of his account 
\o these pages will enrich them. 

" I was alone, young, enthusiastic, uninitiated. In my more 
youthful days I had devoured the enchanting Life of Benjamin 
Franklin, written by himself, and Boston appeared to me as the 
residence of a friend, an associate, an acquaintance. I had also 
drunk in the history of the holy struggle for Independence, first 
made on Bunker's Hill. Dorchester Heights were, to my 



bunker's hill. 39 

youthful imagination, almost as holy ground as Arthur's seat, 
or Salisbury Craig. Around the isles arose the waves of the 
mirrored bay. Beyond was Boston, her glittering spires rising 
into the blue vault of heaven, like beacons to light a world to 
liberty." 

In referring to the scenes near Boston, after he had become 
familiar with them by actual visits, he said : 

" I have studied this country — it's scenery — its moral charac- 
ter — its past history — its great names — its mighty capabilities. 
I have wandered for whole days over the scenes of the Revo- 
lution, near Boston ; I have lounged whole afternoons on the 
brows of Bunker's and of Breed's hill. Here Warren fell. 
There the blood of liberty flowed. Here the enemy landed. 
There the spirits of the dead took their flight to heaven. Yon- 
der was the great death-struggle. I felt the same glow in 
wandering over these scenes, as I did on the fields of Bannock- 
burn, in my more youthful days. It was Liberty and Freedom 
struggling against Pride and Tyranny in both cases. 

" During my residence in Boston, I frequently visited these 
scenes, and once passed a whole moon-light night within the 
old ruined fort on Dorchester Heights, which Washington for- 
merly occupied. Frequently I spent the whole Sunday after- 
noon on the Western brow of that hill, gazing on the glorious 
evening sun, as he set in beauty over the heights of Brook- 
line, and tipped with gold every tree, shrub, house, steeple, 
and sheet of water that lay around my feet, far to the West- 
ward." 

When Mr. Bennett lived in Boston, the hand of civilization 
had not covered with habitations these heights, on which the 
first struggles of the Revolution were commenced. In 1820, 
the upper part of Oharlestown, where the Monument now 
stands, was a series of grass fields stretching from Breed's to 
Bunker's hill, uninterrupted by any habitation. At the North 
side, the slope to the river was as clear as it was on the day 
that the British made the terrible advance which was signalized 
by the death of Warren. Now, the habitations of a city cover 
the ground everywhere. At Dorchester Heights, South Bos- 



40 STRUGGLE FOR BR3AD. 

ton, elaborately described in the " Lionel Lincoln " of Cooper, 
one bouse and orchard alone broke the ascent to the hill on the 
South. The fort was in a fair state of preservation ; and after 
passing the trench and entering the gate, nothing particular 
attracted the eye except the little brick magazine, the entrance 
to which was dilapidating under the hand of time. To-day, 
the summit and the sides of that hill, and of its neighbor at the 
north-east, are invested with new forms, which have left not a 
single trace of their former purpose. Is it not a weakness on 
the part of a people to lose the identities of those localities on 
which their forefathers have written in blood the charters of 
freedom ? No monument can tell a story like the unchanged 
field upon which a fearful struggle has been made for the rights 
of man and human liberty. Monuments may be changed or 
destroyed, but the face of nature in its primal simplicity, if 
untouched by the art of man, will endure beyond all records and 
granite piles, and excite emotions which cannot be stimulated by 
all the inventions of genius. 

Mr. Bennett's experience in Boston, at first, was as severe as 
can well be imagined. He knew no one there, and being soon 
entirely without money or employment, knew not what course to 
pursue. He made several desperate struggles to find employ- 
ment suited to his capacity, but his youth and his being a 
stranger, operated unfavorably for him. 

One day he was walking on the Common, despairing almost 
of all hope, and complaining alike of the callousness of the 
world and the severity of Providence. He had had no food for 
two days, and knew of no means by which he could procure 
any, without becoming a mendicant. In this dilemma, as he 
paced the ground and debated with himself on the mysterious 
ways of Providence, he thought that if there is a ruling Power 
in the universe, surely it is strange that those who are willing 
to work should hunger. In this mood, as he propounded the 
serious question to himself, "How shall I feed myself?" — he 
saw upon the ground something that seemed to look at him 
directly in the face. He started back — paused — and having 
recovered from his surprise, picked up a York shilling ! This 



OCCUPATION IN BOSTON. 41 

gave him courage. It appeared to be a special gift of the 
moment, at once rebuking his complaints and encouraging him 
to persevere. He treated it as a good omen ; for having 
obtained something to eat, he at once went to work in earnest 
for employment. 

He soon found Mr. Wells, a countryman of his, to whom he 
made known his history. This gentleman had been a pupil of 
the celebrated Joseph Priestly, who himself spent the last years 
of his valuable life in this country, and he listened to the story 
of the young adventurer with much interest, and finally invited 
him to take a clerkship or salesman's place in his establishment. 
From this post he was transferred to that of a proof-reader in 
the printing-house of Wells & Lilly, then a leading firm in the 
book trade of the United States. Here he had facilities for 
adding to his stock of knowledge, in addition to the counsels of 
one of the best scholars known to the book trade of the country. 
The firm published many of the best works in the language, 
and were far in advance of the literary taste of the people. 
Their success, consequently, was not great ; and, indeed, soon 
after the retirement of Mr. Wells, their business was entirely 
suspended. While Mr. Bennett was with them, he appears to 
have pursued his studies with no little ardor, and to have used 
his time with more wisdom than is usually displayed by young 
men of his age. That he may have had faults is quite possible, 
but there is no evidence that he had any taste for the pleasures, 
as they are called, which destroy the best hours, and too fre- 
quently the best energies of young men, as well as the elements 
of health itself. As far as can now be discovered, he was of a 
romantic disposition, and indulged in contemplative walks, as 
well as in studious observation of men and things around him. 
He was, at least, now ready to try his temper and spirits in a 
conflict with the world as it stood before him and hemmed him 
in on all sides. 

It already has been said that Mr. Bennett had a taste for 
poetry in his youth. This he encouraged not only by reading, 
but by writing verses. Few of his compositions in verse have 
been published ; but it is reported that he has many original 



42 JUVENILE VERSES. 

poems among his manuscripts. The specimens of his style in 
verse, shown by his published poems, indicate only a natural 
ability for the art, but are not calculated to increase his repu- 
tation as a writer. This fact, probably, and his own estimate 
of the comparatively unimportant character of these produc- 
tions, has caused him to treat them rather as private exercises 
in composition, or as the offspring of a youthful fancy, than as 
works to challenge the dissection of criticism. While he re- 
sided in Boston, he was in the habit of incorporating into verse 
the emotions excited by his rambles in the neighborhood of 
that metropolis. 

In one of these compositions he seems to have designed to 
record his impressions of America, somewhat after the plan 
proposed by Lord Byron in his first purpose with Ohilde 
Harold. He describes Boston, and says of its bay and the 
custom of firing an evening gun at Castle Island — 

" the numerous isles are bright ; 
I 've heard in softness, murmurs of the evening song 

Ushering in the twinkling stars of night : 
The deep-toned evening gun sends out a sudden flash — 
The billows trembling up the white shore dash." 

He then makes an allusion to the social and religious freedom 
of the inhabitants, and to the State House, the dome of which 
crowns the whole peninsula on which Boston is built — 

" the fires 
Of sweet domestic bliss are burning bright — 

The despot dares not touch them. The lofty hall, 
"Where freedom oft with legislation meets, 

To measure justice out, high over all 
Is seen ; and here and there the busy streets, 
Peopled with myriads, arrest the passer-by — 
These are thy blessings, blue-eyed Liberty ! " 

In speaking of the sunset view of Boston, as seen from Dor- 
chester heights, he uses these expressions — 



RESIDENCE IN BOSTON. 43 

" The western sun shines bright like burnished gold 
Upon thy mirrored buildings — brilliant glows 
Are back from every window gaily rolled, 
That far outstrip the rainbow's ruby ray, 
The morn's deep red, or hue of parting day." 

While Mr. Bennett resided in Boston, lie became acquainted 
with a countryman, who was in very destitute circumstances. 
He immediately divided his purse with him, and the money 
thus loaned was never restored. Years passed on, and that 
person became an editor of a popular journal ; and when Mr. 
Bennett began the world on his own individual account, the 
early obligations of friendship were not only all forgotten by 
that recipient of Mr. Bennett's kindness, but the most calum- 
nious attacks were prompted against his early benefactor by 
this person, whose motives sprang, probably, from a desire to 
obtain favor with a particular class of individuals. If it were 
possible for a man of real merit to receive a permanent injury 
from such a source, Mr. Bennett might have suffered from this 
origination of absurd slanders. 

There is little known of Mr. Bennett's history while in 
Boston. Associated with the charms of a printing and pub- 
lishing house, he must have developed to some extent that 
taste for letters which had inspired him when in Scotland. 
Yet as he associated little with the young men of his own age, 
recollections of him necessarily are obscure and unsatisfactory. 
He resided in Court street, opposite the present Court House, 
which was, in the period of his sojourn there, the site of the 
gloomy old jail of white-washed brick and stone, and at the 
rear of which was the favorite play -ground of the boys of the 
Latin School. 

Mr. Bennett was present on the 25th of May, 1821, when 
Edmund Kean at the Federal Street Theatre refused to per- 
form, in consequence of the empty boxes and a supposed im- 
position on the part of the management — a slight to the few 
auditors who were present which was never forgotten — and 
which finally terminated in what was called the Kean riot. 
He personated Lear and Jaffier on the Wednesday and Thurs- 



44 THE KEAN RIOTS. 

day, but on Friday night left the theatre and Boston, to which 
he did not attempt to return till December 21, 1825, on which 
night the theatre was much injured internally, and every win- 
dow was broken, exhibiting next morning upon the icy pave- 
ment fragments which told a tale of strife and madness. Mr. 
Kean escaped luckily, after having been pelted with missiles of 
various kinds. In the property room of the theatre was an old 
Dutch clock, about seven feet in height. Behind this was a 
door, opening into the house of Mr. Clarke, one of the actors. 
Through this the great actor passed, was there dressed in 
female apparel, taken into a chaise, and driven to the Punch- 
bowl tavern at Brighton, where he took his seat in the mail- 
coach for New York, and thus eluded the search of his pur- 
suers. There are various histories of this affair ; but this is 
not the less authentic for being a new one. Other small riots 
took place in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. 

The popular clamor against Mr. Kean, as at the riot in May, 
1836, against the Woods, was excited by a newspaper. It was 
done by the New England Galaxy, founded and edited by the 
much respected veteran, Joseph T. Buckingham, whose example 
as a journalist must have had no little weight upon the mind 
of Mr. Bennett. At that period no editor could break the 
mental and monied monopoly held by the old newspapers, 
except by adopting an extravagant and severe style. Mr. 
Buckingham made enemies and he made friends — but he cut 
his way with a polished sabre, till he was acknowledged to be a 
powerful journalist. Every editor who did not follow the same 
course, and some who did, failed to attract public attention. 
People scolded and fretted, and said they were shocked ter- 
ribly by such freedom of the Press, but they would read, and 
with most zest devoured those articles which were most decla- 
matory and personal, and least instructive and valuable. Mr. 
Bennett was an observer of this condition of the public mind 
and of Journalism. No one could live in Boston then, and not 
know that the Galaxy and Saturday were of equal importance. 
That paper was desired' more eagerly than the sermon on the 
Sabbath, and no paper ever opposed with more zeal religious 



EDITORS THIRTY YEARS AGO. 45 

fanaticism. One then was taught to think that Mr. Bucking- 
ham was a great sinner ; but he lived through all calumny and 
reproach, and no man commands more respect as a man, or as 
a Senator, of the good old State of Massachusetts. 

There were other examples of rampant Journalism. John 
Neal with his Yankee, at a later day, gained readers, while 
more prudish editors starved, or printed papers at a loss. The 
commercial papers of the " Literary Emporium," as Kean had 
styled the town, for it was not then a city, were poor, weak 
things, which did not improve much till Mr. Buckingham com- 
menced his Courier, which was ably conducted, and for a long 
time the friend of Daniel Webster and the " American Sys- 
tem." 

The New York journals were wretched specimens of Jour- 
nalism ; in fact, they were inferior to the Boston newspapers. 
The contents usually were advertisements, a little badly ar- 
ranged ship news, gathered from the reading-rooms of the 
principal ports and from newspapers, a narrow column or more 
of news, a few lines of editorial — in three days out of six at- 
tacking or replying to a brother editor with boyish, trivial, or 
vulgar abuse, and really worthy only of contempt. M. M. 
Noah, William L. Stone, William Coleman, respectively, in 
the National Advocate, Commercial Advertiser, and Evening 
Post, gradually introduced a better style. Mr. Noah was the 
most original and the most popular of these. John Lang, of 
the Gazette, was as much talked of as his paper, but he be- 
longed to the oldest school. Amos Butler, in the Mercantile 
Advertiser, was even behind his own times. Charles King, in 
the American, Henry Wheaton, in the Advocate, and Theodore 
D wight, in the Daily Advertiser, were popular journalists. 

Mr. Bennett studied these men and their journals, as well as 
books. He gathered from their conduct and their representa- 
tions of public opinion the true temper of the men he aspired 
to rival and excel, as well as the condition of society. The 
pursuits in which he had been engaged, his knowledge of the 
taste of society, as discerned through the demand for books, 
which it was his business to superintend as they passed through 



46 RESIDENCE IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 

the hands of printers, in addition to his close observation of 
society generally, enabled him to foresee that there would 
open eventually a field for his active and industrious habits. 
There was a monotony in the life of. a book-publishing house 
that did not suit his disposition, and he was too fond of the 
history of the country not to desire to see those parts of it 
which were most distinguished by the deeds of its forefathers. 

Too poor to gratify his wishes at will, he was obliged to 
creep rather than to run. Accordingly he found his way to 
New York as early as 1822, where, having toiled a little ex- 
perimentally upon the Press, he was fortunate enough to meet 
with A. S. Willington, the proprietor of the Charleston (South 
Carolina) Courier. He accepted a situation on that journal, 
where he was employed chiefly, in 1823, in making transla- 
tions of the news from the Spanish newspapers, received by 
the way of Havana. The South American republics were 
then struggling for freedom. There was an insurrection in 
Cuba, in consequence of an apprehension that the Gem of the 
Antilles would become a British province ; and Louis Antoine 
de Bourbon, Infant of France and Duke D'Angouleme, was 
carrying on his celebrated campaign in . Spain. To these 
subjects Mr. Bennett's mind was turned by his duties as a 
translator. 

In addition to this, he wrote for the Courier, sometimes even 
in verse ; and from Mr. Willington's enterprise in boarding ves- 
sels far at sea for news, took his earliest lessons in that system 
of Journalism, which he subsequently was instrumental in 
raising comparatively to perfection — firstly, by suggesting pos- 
sibilities to others with whom he was associated, and secondly, 
at a later day, by executing them according to his own views, 
and without regard to cost. 



NATURE AND MAN. 47 



CHAPTER II 



There is no philosophy beyond that which is the basis of 
the operations of nature and of the deeds of men ; and as judg- 
ments which do not weigh and estimate all the modifying 
conditions attending physical phenomena are valueless, so de- 
cisions on the character of a man are intellectually shallow, 
false to facts, and faithless to the primal precepts of Chris- 
tianity, if the qualifying circumstances combining to form it 
are not duly heeded and entertained. The very static power 
of nature herself can be overcome by the action of a single 
atom of dust thrown by the hand of man at her feet ; and the 
proud intellect of man himself may be diverted from a stern 
purpose by the unseen agency in a breath of summer wind, or 
be shattered and wrecked by so little a thing as even a nega- 
tive condition of mind in another — a neglect to satisfy a dream 
of love, or a hope of ambition. Such is the weakness of na- 
ture ; such is the boasted strength of man ! Centuries on 
centuries write in their whirling cycles the continually repeated 
truth, that man is the creature of circumstances, as nature is of 
conditions, and that God has assigned to himself even no power 
above them. 

A poor youth, a wanderer from the home of his childhood, a 
waif upon the stream of circumstances, with a mind not formed 
to any grand purpose of action, in a country itself unsettled as 
to many points of public policy, is an interesting subject to be 
studied, as he strives to develope the powers of his mind, and to 
settle upon some field of useful action. He had now resided in 
South Carolina, where he had viewed the operation of the 
institution of slavery, which in 1820 he had seen nationalized 



4S SLAVERY AGITATION. 

by the passage of the Missouri Compromise bill, as the world 
has seen it de-nationalized recently by the passage of the Ne- 
braska bill, putting the whole question back to where it was 
thirty-five years ago, so that Northern legislators no more can 
say, as they could after 1820, "ye are independent, sovereign 
States, we allow ; but not so free and independent as we are ; 
for our permission is required for the local institutions under 
which you live ! " 

. How Mr. Bennett viewed this question of slavery it is easy 
to conjecture by the course which he adopted and has pursued 
to the present hour. He has maintained the same ground as 
those who framed the Constitution, and the sequel to the agi- 
tation of the controversy on this subject, alone can determine 
what the measure of praise or of censure for his position shall 
be, when the passions of men have died away, and his course 
shall be viewed through the impartiality of history. 

That Mr. Bennett's personal observations of the operations, 
conditions, and feelings, connected with slavery have been 
instrumental in exciting in his breast those sympathies with 
Southern interests, without which no philosopher can be a 
reliable political judge, will not be doubted. This great, theme 
of modern reformers was agitated in the public journals for the 
first time about 1820, when the State of Virginia was disposed 
to develope the neglected and mighty resources of her soil, 
then and since shut up by its adherence to that system of labor 
which, all the world knows, or shall know, does and must im- 
poverish every land upon which it is practically encouraged 
and sustained. 

A book was published about the same period to excite the 
feelings of society. It was illustrated with pictures purporting 
to be portraitures of events. Letters appeared soon after in 
the Boston Recorder, a paper supported by the Presbyterians, 
and published by Nathaniel Willis, the father of the author 
and poet. These letters were written by Samuel M. Worces- 
ter, afterwards a professor of rhetoric in Amherst college. 

The Colonization scheme and Liberia were the next themes 
for agitation, and then followed the organization of the Anti- 



JAMES MONROE. 49 

slavery movement, under the zealous perseverance of William 
Lloyd Garrison, which, after 1833, grew rapidly, from the oppo- 
sition to which it was subjected, introducing the various politi- 
cal tricks connected with the topic, and finally giving birth to 
the Union Compromise measures of 1850, which will be noticed 
in their appropriate place. 

Mr. Bennett, familiar with this history, and schooled by a 
residence in the South, was fortunate as a popular journalist in 
having the experience which was his lot in Charleston ; for he 
was more fitted in this respect than the mass of his contempo- 
rary journalists at the North to treat the subject with that dis- 
cretion which is expected from every man who is a member of 
a political community. 

James Monroe was President of the United States when the 
question of the admission of Missouri into the Union was settled, 
and the general policy of that eminent man made him very 
popular. During his terms of office, the severe financial distress 
of 1820 disappeared, and many valuable political principles 
were defined. The question of internal improvements by 
Federal government appropriations and applications was 
w T armly discussed while he was in office. 

It will be necessary, however, to pass from the consideration 
of such subjects, that the progress of Mr. Bennett may be 
traced. 

When Mr. Bennett arrived in New York from Charleston he 
was uncertain as to the best course to be pursued to obtain a live- 
lihood. His experience on the Press, probably, had taught him 
how inadequacy literary labor was rewarded, and how few 
persons were able to rise above the condition of mere secre- 
taries writing at the caprice and dictation of employers. This 
may have led him to attempt a renewal of his profession as a 
teacher; for in October he issued an address to the citizens of 
New York, a copy of which is appended. 

PERMANENT COMMERCIAL SCHOOL. 

The subscriber, encouraged by several gentlemen, intends opening in 
Ann, near Nassau street, an English classical and mathematical school, 

3 



50 SCHOOL IN NEW YORK. 

for the instruction of young gentlemen intended for mercantile pursuits. 
Instruction will be given in the following branches: 

Reading, elocution, penmanship, and arithmetic ; algebra, astronomy, 
history, and geography ; moral philosophy, commercial law, and political 
economy ; English grammar and composition ; and also, if required, the 
French and Spanish languages, by natives of these countries. 

Book-keeping and merchants' accounts will be taught in the most ap- 
proved and scientific forms. 

The school will be conducted, in all the principal branches, according 
to the inductive method of instruction, and particularly so in arithmetic, 
geography, and English grammar. 

It will commence about the first of November. 

References — J. S. Bartlett, M. D., Albion office ; Messrs. Smith and 
Hyslop, Pearl street; Mr. Henry T. Magarey, Broadway; Mr. P. 
Whitin, jr., Maiden Lane. 

J. Gordon Bennett. 

N. B. — Application may be made to J. G. B., at 148 Fulton street. 

This proposed school, if ever formed, was of brief duration. 
As far as can be discovered, it was not established, though it is 
possible that a few pupils may have received tuition for a brief 
term. No public notice, however, of its existence followed this 
preliminary announcement : and it is reasonable to suppose 
that the fascinations of the Press and his natural taste for 
literature soon drew Mr. Bennett away from the project which 
some of his friends were willing to encourage him in under- 
taking. He seems to have doubted his ability to form the 
establishment, as he does not assign a precise date for the 
opening of it ; and as he was in the midst of a vigorous competi- 
tion in school teaching, and without capital to carry out his 
plans, the design may have been abandoned after a few weeks 
lost in the vain hope of obtaining pupils. 

Political economy had many themes of interest for him ; and 
at one time he delivered lectures on them in the vestry of the 
old Dutch church in Ann street. No reports of these lectures 
are in existence to permit any judgment to be formed of the 
quality of the discourses. From the recollections of those who 
heard the lecturer, it is to be presumed that his dissertations 
were not altogether valueless. He had not then become a 



GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 51 

politician, and was not swayed, probably, by those suggestions 
which arise to dwarf the truth when party undertakes to deal 
with principles. Lectures were not common in those days, 
unless they were delivered by clergymen, who seemed to have 
a monopoly of that kind of oral literature, since grown so 
fashionable and universal. 

On the 16th of August, Lafayette, after an absence of forty 
years from the country whose liberty his youthful energies and 
his own treasure had assisted in promoting and securing, landed 
in New York from Staten Island. He came to the land an 
invited guest of a grateful people, President Monroe, who had 
been wounded on the same battle-field with him, having ex- 
tended the invitation which induced him to revisit these shores. 
Thousands now living remember the delight with which the 
people hailed the presence of the companion of Washington, 
strewing flowers in his way, and erecting on every street 
through which he passed symbols of a nation's gratitude, after- 
wards more substantially signified by the appropriations of 
Congress in money and lands, to repair the losses which the 
youthful soldier had gladly incurred in the cause of freedom 
and humanity. 

Lafayette visited almost every part of the country, and was 
present on the 17th of June, 1825, when Daniel Webster 
delivered his oration on laying the corner-stone of the Bunker 
Hill monument, and saw assembled in the present fashionable 
club-house of these " degenerate days," at the corner of Park 
and Beacon streets, in Boston, the few survivors of the terrible 
strife which led to the final success of the American cause. He 
left the country in the frigate Brandywine, named after the 
battle-field where he had been wounded, on the following 14th 
of July. 

For a clear appreciation of statements which are to follow, it 
is important that the reader should be acquainted with the his- 
tory of the National Advocate, after it was under the editorial 
charge of Mr. Noah, who was the successor of Mr. Wheaton. 

In September, 1824, M. M. Noah announced in the daily 
journals that he had retired from the National Advocate. He 



52 NATIONAL ADVOCATE. 

gave his reasons for his course. Upon the publication of these, 
a war of words ensued. He had failed in his election to the 
office of sheriff, said the actual proprietors of the journal, and it 
was necessary for hirn to find employment. He never was a 
proprietor himself, although he had been connected with the 
paper for seven years. Having represented that he could pur- 
chase half of the journal for four thousand dollars, and that the 
debts against it were about five thousand dollars, Henry Eck- 
ford and others advanced the money to effect the purchase, 
taking a bond, secured by a mortgage on the paper, with full 
power to sell and convey, if the interest were not paid regularly 
every six months. In a year after, the debts were found to be 
nearer twelve thousand dollars than the sum which had been 
stated. Five thousand dollars more were advanced on certain 
conditions. Mr. Eckford was to have the right to put a mana- 
ging man in the business department, and to control the edi- 
torial space so far as to restrain personal attacks on private 
individuals. In this way the whole of the paper was assigned, 
and finally was transferred, to W. P. Ness, who offered it to 
Mr. Noah for the sums which had been advanced. Mr. Van 
Ness explained at the time the condition in which affairs stood, 
by which it will be seen that editorial scurrility was not 
agreeable to every mind, common as it was everywhere. "The 
National Advocate was overwhelmed with difficulties and em- 
barrassments. It was on the verge of ruin. The advance of 
a large sum of money was essential to its existence, even for a 
week. The money was advanced by a private citizen, in the 
hope of aiding the Democratic cause. By this patriotic act he 
became, unexpectedly, identified with the paper, and, to a cer- 
tain extent, responsible for its character. If the columns of the 
National Advocate were polluted by the introduction of per- 
sonal invectives, or illiberal and undignified attacks, he who 
had advanced all the funds to rescue it from destruction, and to 
continue its publication, would inevitably hare been considered 
as sanctioning, if not abetting, this system of warfare." 

The columns of the National Advocate, after the departure 
from it of Mr. Noah, were put under the control of the General 



snowden's advocate. 53 

Republican Committee, Thomas Snowden continuing to be the 
printer of the journal. They selected Mr. Noah, who aban- 
doned his design to publish a new paper, with a view to keep 
the Democratic party as an integer. In November, E. J. 
Roberts became an associate with Mr. Noah. On the 8th of 
December the establishment was offered for sale, and if not 
disposed of at private sale, was to be sold publicly on the 15th 
of the month. It had, at ten dollars, thirteen hundred and 
fifty daily subscribers, one hundred and thirty of whom were 
advertisers at the rate of thirty dollars per annum. Its semi- 
weekly subscribers, at four dollars, amounted to less than one 
thousand. This was called an influential journal ! 

The paper, types, and presses, were bought, however, by 
Mr. Snowden for eleven thousand five hundred dollars, but he 
could not obtain them from Mr. Noah, who held possession of 
the lease of the establishment. Mr. Noah then issued the New 
York National Advocate, and Mr. Snowden continued the 
National Advocate, in which the Patriot, a daily paper edited 
by Mr. Gardner, was merged, on the 1st of January. The 
whole matter of the sale of the National Advocate became a 
question in the courts of law, and was protracted for a long 
period. Mr. Noah's conduct was justified in law, by a jury's 
verdict, and he continued his journal through a term of 
eighteen months, till July 6, 1826, when he commenced the 
Enquirer. Mr. Roberts, in the meantime, attached himself to 
Mr. Snowden's Advocate, where he was sustained by the ad- 
versaries of Mr. Noah, who described them as a " body of 
adventurers ; lobby members ; purchasers of old charters ; 
issuers of fictitious papers ; stock-jobbers ; dealers in Lombards, 
bonds, canals, life-insurances, and so forth ; men who have left 
tlie ship-yards, bake-houses, and the honest mechanical em- 
ployments to which they have been accustomed, to congregate 
in Wall street, and devise schemes to fill their own pockets out 
of the pockets of the public. These men have nearly ruined 
the credit of the city abroad, and by their fictitious operations 
have materially affected us at home. By their bonds, rags, 
and hypothecation of stocks, they have managed to control a 



54 TARIFF. 

nominal capital of four millions of dollars in different institu- 
tions, and I do not believe that their whole confederacy is 
worth one hundred thousand dollars." 

The hostility between the two Advocates arose not so 
much from animosity between the editors, as from the fact that 
the proprietors in the back-ground were at war. Mr. Noah's 
opposition was against an entire class of business men ; and he 
pursued the principal ones with a determination that aimed at 
them as members of the community, as well as at their position 
as politicians. He feared the old Advocate would become the 
recognized organ of the Democratic party, and he continually 
attacked that paper as an unsafe journal, and as liable to be 
sold with all its principles in the public market. On every 
possible occasion he directed attention to the owners of it, and 
this course, added to his method of publicly calling upon cer- 
tain individuals to pay their debts, introduced finally a kind of 
catastrophe that scarcely could have been expected by him 
when he commenced his remarkable line of policy towards his 
old acquaintances. He brought on several heads a series of 
calamities, which he no doubt lived to believe were unmerited 
— so easy is it to kindle a flame that cannot be readily 
quenched. More on this point will be exposed when a survey 
shall be taken of that period which was marked by the esta- 
blishment of the Enquirer. 

The position of the tariff question in 1824 and the preceding 
year is full of interest and instruction. It may be stated truly, 
in general terms, that it was more of a Southern measure than 
a Northern one. Massachusetts was opposed to it ; and many 
of the ablest Northern statesmen were in favor of free trade. 
Andrew Jackson voted for this tariff; Daniel Webster was 
against it; and yet, at a later day, the opinioiis of these men 
were reversed. Andrew Jackson obtained his re-election to 
the Presidency as much from his hostility to the " American 
system," as he did from his opposition to the United States 
Bank. How much Daniel Webster may have lost by his 
advocacy of the tariff policy must be matter of conjecture. 

Mr, Bennett's taste for political economy, doubtless, caused 



INNOVATION IN BUILDING. 55 

him to watch the progress of the debates on protection to 
American manufactures ; and from his frequent allusions to the 
subject at a later day, it is evident that he was opposed to any 
very exclusive system of protection. 

It is not necessary, however, to enter into speculations as to 
his opinions, or as to his views of the best mode of disposing of 
a subject so theoretical, particularly when applied to the pecu- 
liarly broad ground which all considerations of it must occupy 
when brought into relation with the vast territory and compli- 
cated commercial interests of the United States. The subject, 
at various times, has been agitated with much spirit ; but since 
the government of Great Britain yielded to the clamor of the 
Anti-eorn-law League, it has been abandoned by many Ameri- 
can political writers as a fruitless topic of controversy. 

There was much excitement during the year in New York 
with respect to the manner in whieh the charter of the Chemi- 
cal Bank was obtained, and the charges of bribery and corrup- 
tion were so gross, that the legislature instituted an inquiry 
into the subject, which brought out certain disagreeable facts. 
Like almost all similar inquiries, however, the result has not 
lessened the bargaining and buying which belong to every 
attempt to carry through the Legislature measures for the 
eharter of a public institution. 

Mr. Bennett probably had some first lessons in local poli- 
tics when the developments were made with regard to the mode 
of obtaining bank charters ; for at about the same period the 
Fulton Bank, also, was passing through an ordeal of investiga- 
tion. Such matters deeply impress youthful minds when 
about to enter the arena of life, and will remain in the memory 
for illustration till the latest moment of one's being. 

The plan of building with stone in New York was introduced 
with great difficulty not far from this period. The first stone 
edifices were the American Museum, and the house now occu- 
pied by S. S. Fitch, the physician, nearly opposite the New 
York Hotel. Such were the foolish prejudices of masons and 
builders, that no one could be found to undertake the work of 
putting up the front of the American Museum — the stone for 



56 THE ACTORS. 

which was supplied for the trifling sum of five hundred dollars, 
in order to induce the owner to use it. A mason was found at 
last to do the work. He was a convict at Sing Sing, and was 
pardoned for the express purpose of superintending the labor 
in question. Such are the empty follies of men whenever any 
inventions or innovations are proposed. Fearful of erring in one 
extreme, men rush towards the other, and thus deprive society 
for generations of great benefits and improvements. Thus it 
was with the steamboat of Fulton on the Hudson river ; thus 
was it with railroads at first ; for they were opposed by stage- 
coachmen and tavern keepers as destructive of the price of 
horse-flesh and of all patronage from the travelling public. In 
fact, scarcely any truly valuable improvement in the art of 
living has been given to society that has not been spurned as 
unworthy of acceptance. 

Prior to 1824 the drama was graced with the efforts of many 
artists then and since deservedly renowned. James Wallack 
performed in this country as early as 1818, and shared public 
approbation with Cooper, Booth, Duff, Matthews, and others, 
who were then in the prime of life. He has crossed the ocean 
to England about thirty times, and is still devoted to his origi- 
nal profession. Mr. Forrest appeared first, in Philadelphia, in 
1820, then retired to the West for practice, and returned to 
make his first appearance at the Park theatre in June, 1826. 
He performed in Philadelphia the year before. Mr. Bennett 
gave great encouragement to his youthful efforts, as he did in 
Philadelphia to those of Charles H. Eaton, in 1833, and has 
since given aid to the artistical studies of McKean Buchanan, 
of Edward L. Davenport, of James Murdoch, and others who are 
worthy of public approbation, and upon whom the drama in its 
highest form must make greater and greater demands for 
years to come. Mrs. Duff was a remarkably gifted and power- 
ful actress at this period. In high comedy, George H. Barrett, 
now on the eve of retirement, and it is hoped not without some 
token of the memories of former times, was the very " glass of 
fashion," but a substantial one. 

It would be a fitting tribute to the position which Mr. Bar- 



TESTIMONIAL BENEFITS. 57 

rett has maintained towards the drama for more than forty 
years, if those who remember his youthful spirit and elegance 
of style, were to combine with the present generation, during 
the approaching autumn, and furnish one of those interesting 
festivals which at once dignify the stage, and give a glory to 
the fading stars in the horizon of the drama. In many cases 
testimonial benefits are proposed and given without due reason, 
but in such a case as this even captiousness itself could not 
present a valid objection. 



5C LOTTERIES. 



CHAPTER III 



The year 1825 introduced into New York the art of litho- 
graphy, watch-guards, gas, and joint-stock companies, which 
were originated in many cases for no honest purposes. Wild 
speculations in cotton, together with gambling transactions of 
every kind, were hastening on a crisis that was to be severer 
in its results than that known in 1816-17. If the city did not 
appear like a huge lottery office, with innumerable depart- 
ments, it was because the citizens were too much excited by 
the rage for money making to see it as it really was. Lotteries 
then abounded throughout the country, and were so ar- 
ranged that there was no risk upon the part of the managers. 
They always had forty per cent, in their favor, and some- 
times much more than that amount, and their agents were in 
every village in the country, deluding the people, and unhing- 
ing the minds of the industrious classes from those pursuits 
which alone secure individual and national wealth. Fortunes 
were made, it is true, but seldom by others than those who 
were legalized in levying contributions upon the people upon 
various pleas, such as education, and the various interests of 
the States which sanctioned these schemes. Perhaps there 
was something ominous in Hubard's c^ttiug all the prominent 
citizens' portraits in black paper during this period ! 

When the moment of reaction ensued, crimination com- 
menced. The Press was obliged to indulge in some slight 
thunders, and its lightnings scathed some of the fabrics of 
fancy and those who had built them. Hence libel suits arose, 
and harsh personal animosities, which increased into animal vin- 
dictiveness. Alleged libels in the Evening Post and American 



JOHN Q.UINCY ADAMS. 59 

were followed b.y suits which failed. Thomas "W. Clerke, edi- 
tor of the Globe and Emerald, was not quite so fortunate with 
one brought against him by William L. Stone, editor of the 
Commercial Advertiser. He was slightly fined for charging 
Mr. Stone with having been bribed with respect to some lobby 
business in the Legislature. Personal encounters were not 
uncommon, and, though the street fights which raged two or 
three years before had ceased, individual cases of assault and 
battery, particularly during elections, were matters of daily 
occurrence. The fights between the Battery boys and the 
Lispenard-hill boys in New York ; between the Fort Hill boys 
and the South-enders, the North-enders and Oharlestown Pigs, 
in Boston, and between the Ohesnut-street boys and those of 
the Northern Liberties, in Philadelphia, in which not a few 
lives were lost, for a long time defied the exertions of the im- 
potent constabular system of those days. In New York they 
seem to have terminated with the death of Mr. Lambert, for 
whose murder two young men were tried, and were sent to the 
penitentiary on a verdict for manslaughter. 

The result of the presidential election had some share in 
bringing the people into a better social state ; and the visit of 
Lafayette exerted, also, a refining influence upon the nationality 
of the people. On the 4th of March John Quincy Adams was 
made President. In compliance with the provision of the Con- 
stitution, when the electoral colleges fail to make a choice in 
consequence of the number of the presidential candidates pre- 
cluding the necessary majority of the whole number of electors, 
the election devolved upon the House of Representatives- 
Andrew Jackson had 99, Adams 84, W. H. Crawford 41, 
and Henry Clay 37 votes. The contest was between the 
three who received the largest number. At this juncture Mr. 
Clay and his friends supported Mr. Adams, which caused much 
political hostility, and for ever proved a bar to his elevation to 
the chair of the presidency. It was alleged that he had made 
a bargain with Mr. Adams. 

Mr. Adams had been Secretary of State during the eight 
years of Mr. Monroe's two terms of office, upon the second of 



60 RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 

which Mr. Monroe entered on the 4th of March, 1821. Mr. 
Adams was calculated by experience, wisdom, and sagacity, for 
his high place of honor and trust ; but party warfare paralyzed 
his purposes. His administration during his third year was 
in a minority in both houses. 

An event of a singular character took place in this year, 
which those who are acquainted with the fearful maladies to 
which the overtaxed human mind is liable, will attribute to the 
proper causes operating in connexion with a naturally ardent 
and imaginative intellect. Mr. Noah had conceived the idea, 
that the time had come for the " Restoration of the Jews," and 
believed that he was the judge, or king, to bring the chosen 
people of God into one accord. He selected Grand 'Island, 
near Buffalo, which then was neither within the jurisdiction of 
the United States nor of Great Britain, as the scene where 
this wonderful event was to be commenced. Accordingly, on 
the 15th of September a grand festival took place in the 
neighborhood of the future Jerusalem, at which Mr. Noah ap- 
peared in the insignia of one of the monarchs of the Hebrews. 
He issued a long proclamation, addressed to the Jewish people 
throughout the earth, in which he styled himself " Mordecai 
Manuel Noah, citizen of the United States, late consul of said 
States for the city and kingdom of Tunis, high sheriff of New 
York, counsellor at law, and, by the grace of God, Governor 
and Judge of Israel." This document first was published in 
the Buffalo Patriot extra of September 15th, and soon after 
appeared in the New York National Advocate. He addressed 
the Hebrews as their king. He revives the government of the 
Jewish nation, and commands all the priests and elders to 
respect his proclamation and to give it effect ; orders a census 
of the Jews, and directs that they shall be registered. The 
Hebrews in the employment of the kings and emperors are 
enjoined to conduct themselves bravely and with fidelity until 
further orders. They are commanded to be neutral between 
the Greeks and Turks. He abolishes polygamy, and prohibits 
marriage unless the parties can read and write ; orders the 
saying of prayers ; directs that the black Jews of India and 



SUNDAY PAPERS. G) 

Africa shall have equality of rights with others ; and decrees 
that the American Indians are descendants of the lost tribes. 
For his treasury, he levies a capitation tax on all the Jews of 
one dollar, and, estimating the number at six millions, thus 
foresees an adequate income. To collect his money, he names 
his commissioners in foreign countries, to whom he will send 
instructions. 

It is almost unnecessary to add that Grand Island did not 
prosper under the plan proposed, favorably situated as it is for 
the site of a great city. Doubtless, Mr. Noah discovered the 
origin of that enthusiasm which led him into this vain, yet 
brilliant project. 

Mr. Bennett was aware of all the circumstances connected 
with this affair, and occasionally has alluded to it in the course 
of the strife between the two journalists, which commenced in 
1835 ; and it is creditable to him that he always treated it with 
a mildness that might have been overlooked by a more incon- 
siderate antagonist. 

In 1825 Mr. Bennett made his first attempt to become the 
proprietor of a public journal. At the commencement of the 
year, John Tryon published a paper that was distributed on 
Sunday morning. It was called the New York Courier. Mr 
Bennett wrote for it for some time, at a small salary such as 
would have been spurned as unsatisfactory wages by any mer- 
chant's carman or porter. After a few months, Mr. Tryon 
found that the people were not ready to support his new enter- 
prise, ana appeals to the advertising community could not save 
him from losses. Since then the Sunday press has grown into 
favor with the public. The Sunday Morning News, edited by 
Samuel Jenks Smith, was the first successful journal of the 
kind, which was well supported till his decease in 1840. It 
soon after gave place to other Sunday newspapers ; and there 
are now, in the full tide of prosperity, the Herald, Atlas, Dis- 
patch, Mercury, Courier, and Times, all of which are published 
on the first day of the week. 

Mr. Bennett purchased Mr. Tryon's establishment, and paid 
for it with his own notes, which subsequently, when he ascer- 



6,2 ITALIAN OPERA. 

tained that the public would not sustain the Courier, he received 
again, as far as practicable, from Mr. Tryon, to whom he 
restored the establishment. Mr. Tryon continued it till 
August,. 1826, when he presented the subscription list to 
George P. Morris, of the New York Mirror, although the two 
papers had been engaged in rivalry and antagonism. 

Mr. Bennett was very active as a writer and reporter at this 
period, and was employed at different times, as occasions 
prompted, on several journals. He was chiefly employed, 
however, upon the columns of the National Advocate, published 
by Mr. Snowden. Indeed, the traces of his pen are seen in the 
very first number of Mr. Snowden's journal, in September, 
1824, a month before he issued the proposals for the establish- 
ment of the "Permanent Commercial School," already noticed. 
He also contributed to the Mercantile Advertiser. 

The year 1825 introduced the Italian opera to the American 
people. It was a speculation that did not prosper, though 
public approbation for the natural and acquired talents which 
distinguished a portion of the company was very great. None 
of the enterprises of a similar kind mentioned in other chapters, 
not even the troupes with Sontag or with Alboni, in 1852, not 
the latest triumphs of lyric skill with La Grange and her excel- 
lent company in the Don Giovanni of Mozart, at the close of 
June, 1855, have eradicated the impressions received by those 
citizens who saw and heard the Garcia troupe at the Park 
theatre, where an American audience first taught th^ world to 
appreciate Malibran, then Signorina Garcia, and only seventeen 
years of age ! 

Garcia and his coadjutors first appeared on the 29th of 
November, and the Signorina continued to perform for a period 
of two years, at intervals. Mr. Bennett was present at her 
debut ; and he has given, in a sketch of the manner in which 
the performances took place on that occasion, a picture that 
will be recognized as faithful to the facts. Da Ponte, alluded 
to, was the author of the poetry of several popular operas. 

" Signorina Garcia made her debut on a Monday evening, 
at the Park theatre, in the opera of ' II Barbiere di Seviglia.' 



MALIBRAN. 63 

She played the part of Rosina ; her father Almaviva ; her bro- 
ther Figaro ; the great bass singer, Angrisani, Doctor Bartolo. 
I remember the evening as well as I remember last night. I 
occupied a front seat in the side box of the second tier. I 
could not get a seat anywhere else. The whole first tier was 
full of ladies, brilliantly and beautifully decorated. The pit 
was crammed with venerable gentlemen with gray heads, and 
powdered wigs. 

" The overture was listened to with breathless silence. It 
was the first time that an Italian opera had been heard in this 
country. There was an enthusiasm in the public mind that 
surpasses language. At the conclusion of the overture, the 
whole audience burst forth in rapture and applause. I never 
applaud, or make a noise at theatres. I leave that for loafers 
and blockhead critics to perpetrate; but at that moment I 
could hardly resist the contagion. 

" The opera began ; Figaro came forward. Every one was 
pleased — but the great attraction of the evening was yet to 
come. In a few moments Rosina came forward — the charm- 
ing, black-eyed, modest, easy, exquisite Signorina ! She was 
young and lovely. She wore a pink dress, trimmed with black. 
She came down to the foot-lights with exquisite grace, smiling 
like an angel from heaven as she came. The audience were 
in raptures. She opened her mouth — ' una voce poco fa' burst 
from her lips in soft, melodious, exquisite tones. The whole 
theatre was breathless — the ladies looking and listening — the 
gentlemen in raptures — the old French and Italian gentlemen 
in the ■, pit almost melted into tears — and the venerable Da 
Ponte, sitting in the centre, with his head uncovered, enjoying 
the glory and the delight of the scene. 

" Till that moment I never knew what music was — I never 
cared for singing — never valued vocal powers till then. The 
divine girl — for then she was a mere girl — carried every heart 
and every soul with her. Even the splendid singing of 
Angrisani — the beautiful melody and exquisite grace of Signor 
Garcia, produced no adequate impression like that of Rosina. 

" We might sketch every single scene, every duett or trio— 



64 malibran's farewell. 

from ' una voce' to * zitti zitti,' or the ' finale' — but enough. 
This opera was performed thirty nights in succession, during 
the season, and every repetition was more exquisite than the 
preceding. She afterwards appeared in Desdemona, in Romeo, 
in Zerlina, in Tancredi, and in each she enraptured every* 
true lover of music and art. Her Desdemona was one of the 
most splendid pieces of tragic acting ever seen here, to say 
nothing of the musical execution. Her Zerlina, in ' II Don 
Giovanni,' was most exquisite and natural. Who that heard 
her with her father in ' Batti Batti,' can ever forget her, or in 
1 La ci darem la mano,' can lose the memory of their sounds % 
But enough. The memory of Signorina Garcia will be 
revered — nay, adored, by certain amateurs in this city." 

Garcia and his daughter were separated in the second year 
of her visit to the United States, and she sang in English opera. 
Her history from that time is full of melancholy interest. 

On Monday evening, October 29th, 1827, the great vocalist 
performed in " John of Paris" and a concert, and sailed for 
France on the 1st of November, where in 1828 she became 
the idol of Paris. She was the female Garrick, as Pasta was 
the Siddons, of the Italian stage. At her last appearance in 
New York the opera went off heavily. In the concert " she 
gave all her Italian songs with great sweetness, and was 
accompanied by Signor Segura, in a masterly manner, on the 
violin, in a piece which she executed with great spirit on the 
piano-forte. In conclusion she sang an original song, written 
by Mr. Keene, and composed by herself, called her ' Fare- 
well.' It was as plaintive as the occasion warranted, and was 
interrupted by her audible sobs and streaming eyes — and well 
might she have wept in taking leave of an audience not sur- 
passed probably in the world for worth, character, taste, and 
beauty." It may be well to add that, while in this country, 
the peculiar organization of that gifted vocalist, together with 
her sensitive nature, caused her frequently to exhibit those 
states of syncope in one of which, at Manchester, in September, 
1836, her spirit and that of melody left the earth together. 

Since the appearance of the Garcia troupe, many attemptf 



ITALIAN OPERA. 65 

have been made to establish the Italian opera on a permanent 
foundation, but always at an eventual loss. The same amount 
of money expended on the English drama would have shed a 
halo of fame around it and the literature of the country — for it 
has prospered without any extraordinary efforts to increase its 
value or importance. The mistake with the Italian opera 
always has been in a desire to sustain it contrary to the spirit 
and genius of the country ; that is, to make it conform in its 
auditory to the establishments of aristocratic countries, where 
speculations of the kind, even with all the superfluous wealth 
brought forward by the way of patronage, are oftener futile 
than profitable. 

The opera houses of New York, one after another, con- 
sequently have failed. Palmo's speculation was conducted at 
one time with skill, and Sanquirico and Patti, made an accu- 
mulation of stock and scenery, but in the end failure followed. 
Then the unfortunate Astor Opera House was erected. It 
struggled through several seasons <upon an unpopular basis, 
altogether foreign to the instincts of those who seek and sup- 
port public amusements, and, though rescued for a while by 
the agency of Max Maretzek, finally was closed for ever in 
1852, by the admirable performances of Ghistavus V. Brooke, 
the English tragedian, and " went to the dogs" and Donetti's 
troupe of other trained animals. 

The Academy of Music in Fourteenth street was opened in 
1855, with little skill, and suddenly its manager failed. The 
practical views of two of the stock-holders, Messrs. Phalen and 
Coit, then were carried out with some success. The opera 
under their care has been popularized, and promises to be 
placed at least upon something like a secure foundation, while 
they control its destiny. It never should be forgotten, how- 
ever, that there is an essential difference between the society 
of Europe and of the United States, and, however much that 
of the former is to be admired, where it is natural to the institu- 
tions whence it takes its rise, it becomes odious by transplanta- 
tion, or by being engrafted upon a stock where it exhibits 
nothing but its decaying beauty. From the origin of the 



66 FINANCIAL FEVER. 

American people as an independent nation to this moment, the 
whole genius of the masses has been against the undue tolera- 
tion of distinctive classes in anything like a public develop- 
ment ; and it will grow stronger, in spite of individual affecta- 
tion or imitation, till it paralyzes any and every palpable 
demonstration in hostility to its very proper and commendable 
temper. 

The Press has done more for the Italian opera than for any 
other form of dramatic entertainments. No one will regret 
this ; but it is a fact that speaks well for the liberality of a 
country, freely sacrificing, in a great measure, its own artists 
and its own literature, for the elevation and success of an insti- 
tution in every particular foreign, and to many persons a 
sealed mystery. Like all exotic plants, the Italian opera needs 
a forced and tender culture, and without it, must perish. 

In this year the financial and commercial panic of Great 
Britain extended its influences to this country. For several 
years before this period- the general prosperity had been 
advancing steadily. In South America new markets had been 
found, and everywhere new articles of manufacture were intro- 
duced. There was the same spirit of speculation abroad as has, 
attended the railway mania of a later day. At the close of 
1824, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in opening his financial 
budget, alluded warmly to the condition of the country as 
being highly prosperous and secure. Confidence ensued 
among all the capitalists both small and great. Money was 
easily obtained. The rates of interest were low, and there 
was no difficulty in obtaining funds on moderate securities. 

The great difficulty then arose to find channels for invest- 
ment. There were projectors of schemes enough soon dis- 
covered. Plans for the domestic improvement of the country 
were proposed, and the capitalists rushed in to obtain a share 
of the promised returns. Every stock was sold at a high 
premium. Men and women, learning how rapidly their neigh- 
bors realized money in the activity with which stock exchanges 
were made, were tempted to quench their avarice at the same 
fountains. Old channels of investment were neglected. Use- 



PANIC IN ENGLAND. 67 

ful plans had not the charms of those wild propositions which 
promised gains such as were never realized save in dreams 
having the gorgeous glow of Eastern romance. 

Among the popular schemes of the day there were not less 
than six joint-stock milk companies in London, the capitals of 
which amounted to a little less than four millions of dollars. 
There was one company called the General Journal Company, 
with a capital of ten millions of dollars, the object of which was 
to buy all the newspapers. A project was started, also, with a 
capital of more than seventeen millions of dollars, to unite 
London with Portsmouth by a grand canal. There was another 
company, the purpose of which was to purchase all unpublished 
manuscripts — a lucky scheme for hungry authors, and one 
which ought to be made perpetual. Other companies were 
formed for making bricks, fattening mutton, and establishing 
pawn-broking on liberal principles. 

One hundred and seventy such companies were originated in 
sober, sedate Great Britain, where the people pride themselves 
on their coolness, as they have a right to take pride in their 
high commercial promptitude and respect for the time, as well 
as the character of those who are engaged in trade, deeming it a 
sin to tamper and delay in commercial and financial transac- 
tions, which is the vice of the business class in the United 
States. And what was the amount of the aggregated capital in 
these fancy companies ? One thousand millions of dollars ! 

These schemes were sustained by the leading capitalists of 
that country. The trustees, directors, and bankers were culled 
from the best and wealthiest portion of society. Thus the 
safety of investments was virtually guaranteed. Some per- 
sons, who sold rapidly, made fortunes — others, who held stock in 
full confidence of its ultimate rise, were doomed to lose all 
they possessed, when the revulsion should take place. After 
the capital of the country was devoured, credit was taxed for 
supplies. The Bank of England, and the provincial banks, 
were not alive to their true position. They discounted freely 
to gratify borrowers. When this fever reached its height the 
crisis came on. The Bank of England suddenly stopped the 



68 THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 

supplies. Eight hundred banks imitated that movement, and 
the consequence was that financial and commercial ruin was 
seen everywhere. Over a hundred companies which existed in 
February, 1825, were known only to their victims a year 
afterwards. Bankrupts were gazetted in abundance, and a 
complete prostration of credit would have ensued, if bills had 
not been noted and renewed as a matter of course, and without 
injury to individual credit. 

To the United States of America the influence of the com- 
mercial speculation and financial expansion in Great Britain 
during this year necessarily extended. The revulsion, too, 
operated in due time, bringing with it all the evils incidental to 
such a species of profligacy. In recording the results, in the 
year of the reaction, the prominent facts, together with the 
origin of a portion of the difficulties, in addition to those con- 
nected with the partiality of the people for legalized lotteries, 
will naturally find a place. To these a few pages in the next 
chapter will be devoted, as a suitable introduction to the other 
events with which Mr. Bennett's connexion with the Press 
brought him into familiarity. 

In the public policy of the country no question in 1825 was 
more interesting than that of the proposed Panama Congress, 
which involved the consideration of all the points in the 
" Monroe doctrine." The second Adams was the originator of 
it ; and by his special message on the subject, he may be said 
to have claimed it. The chief feature of the doctrine is the 
enunciation of an opposition to the European colonization of any 
part of the American continent — perhaps the most sagacious 
political sentiment avowed since the Declaration of Independ- 
ence ; for while this continent is free from the encroachments 
of powerful European countries, there can be no well-grounded 
fears of any long or troublesome wars, and the life of political 
liberty will be secured. Mr. Adams knew the value of the 
doctrine, but the plan proposed to enforce it upon the attention 
of the world was not wise, and hence the failure of the proposed 
Congress, even after it had received legislative sanction. 

The time may come when the real importance of the " Mon- 



THE ERIE CANAL. 6-9 

roe doctrine" will be felt by every citizen of the United States, 
and men will learn to appreciate the foresight of John Quincy 
Adams in averting the cause of a series of evils which might 
be greater than those originating the wars in Europe. The 
question of European acquisition of territory on the American 
continent has not been tried fully as yet ; and whenever it 
shall be, it will be done by war alone — a calamity which every 
good man will desire to be removed to the most distant future. 
Several foolish attempts have been made to colonize districts in 
South America, and to establish protectorates there ; but Great 
Britain has seen at last the error and will not renew, probably, 
a policy that is manifestly in conflict with her own peace and 
security, and can lead to nothing less than troublesome nego- 
tiations and increasing jealousies. 

In March, 1825, the merchants of Pearl street presented a 
service of plate to De Witt Clinton, in testimony of his worth 
as a public citizen. It cost thirty-five hundred dollars, and 
recently has been exhibited in the window of Tiffany & Oo.'s 
establishment, where it is deposited for preservation and safety. 

On the 24th of June, 1825, the celebration of the opening of 
the Erie Canal, three hundred and sixty-two miles in length, 
excited uncommon interest. De Witt Clinton immortalized his 
name by his connexion with this magnificent and beneficial 
project, which did more to increase production throughout the 
whole territory of New York than any other design connected 
with the internal improvements of the state. Yet De Witt 
Clinton was accused by partisan journals of being a selfish man, 
seeking his own aggrandisement ; and computations were made 
to show how much money he had received, in salaries, from 
the people, as if he had not been entitled to payment, for 
devoting his time to the improvement of the state of which he 
must ever be deemed one of its brightest treasures. The Erie 
Canal owed its completion to his zeal, enterprise, and unwaver- 
ing confidence. It was commenced on the fourth of July, 
1817, and cost seven millions of dollars. De Witt Clinton died 
in 1828. 



7C AN INFAMOUS EDITOR. 



CHAPTER IV 



In 1826 Mr. Bennett identified himself more closely with the 
National Advocate. He was indefatigable in his researches, 
and watched the " signs of the times " with mnch shrewdness, 
and nsed them with effect, making the old Advocate qnite a 
match for the new one. On the much agitated subject of the 
tariff he was very zealous, and collected many facts to disprove 
the theories of the protectionists, while on the subject of banks 
and banking he had much to say from time to time, as circum- 
stances arose to challenge comments. He devoted not a little 
attention to political subjects generally, because the readers of 
the journal expected him to do so, and thus, almost insensibly, 
he was drawn towards the whirlpool of party. He could not 
escape making some enemies by his activity, for the passions 
of men are so strong that any opinion or statement which con- 
flicts with their pecuniary success, with their private ambition, 
or with the dogmatism that grows out of their own vanity, is 
liable to subject him who utters it to contumely or reproach. 

If a stranger in the city, perchance, should meet one of the 
notorious stock-jobbers of 1826, and should inquire of him the 
character of Mr. Bennett, he would be told that he is anything 
but what he is. It is quite possible that he would say — " he is 
an infamous journalist. He is well known here. He has inter- 
fered with the money market, and I remember that many years 
ago he became quite a nuisance by reporting trials for the news- 
papers — telling everything, when there was no necessity for 
telling anything. Oh, sir, he is an infamous editor." 

Perhaps on inquiry, it could be found that this man's opinion 
is only a piece of personal malice. It is quite probable that 



COMMERCIAL FRAUDS. 71 

he was on trial for fraud in 1826, perhaps was sentenced to the 
Penitentiary, and has been engaged ever since in bubble joint- 
stock companies, by which he has obtained money enough out 
of dupes to live in a splendid mansion, and to ape the equipage 
of a European lord. Perhaps this same man may have been 
recently placed before the public for an intimate connexion 
with some bubble company established to rob the widow and 
the orphan, and that Mr. Bennett has continued to guard the 
public against his designs. 

This is no picture of the fancy. Trace to their origin the 
undefined charges against Mr. Bennett, and many times the 
investigator will discover that he has arrived on ground which 
was occupied by the swindlers of 1826, who endeavored by 
every possible art to escape public censure for their conduct, 
and who had a zealous horror of every man whose duty it was 
to be a reporter, provided he was found true to his position. 
Mr. Bennett then was reporting occasionally for the Press ; 
and when the conspiracy cases were tried, and banks fraudu- 
lently engendered were broken up, and the officers of public 
institutions were in danger of being sent to prison, and com- 
mercial honor seemed to be an empty name, the studious jour- 
nalist stood by the history of the time as a scribe, and wrote the 
truth with respect to the evidence in which the public were 
deeply interested. It was not for him to say if it pleased or 
displeased. He had no choice in the matter ; and it might 
have been necessary for him, as a just reporter, to injure an 
acquaintance, or even some man high in place and power, if 
the law had undertaken to investigate subjects which excited 
the suspicions of the people. 

The joint-stock fever in Great Britain already described was 
raging, on a smaller scale, in New York also in 1825 ; and the 
natural jealousy of business men, and political quarrels, together 
with Mr. Noah's fixed animosity towards Jacob Barker and 
Henry Eckford, the oflicers of several joint-stock companies, 
hastened the downfall and exposition of many individuals, and 
destroyed, or revolutionized, the institutions with which they 
were connected. The commercial edifice was divided against 



72 JACOB BARKER AND HENRY ECKFORD. 

itself, and two parties existed. Plot and counter-plot were at 
work ; and many of the very men who hurried on the trials of 
their neighbors for unjust commercial practices, having accom- 
plished the ruin of their victims, afterwards were themselves 
made bankrupts. Commercial ruin to those who gamble in 
stocks is almost inevitable. It is the natural fate of men who 
engage upon a field where production is not increased — men 
who are symbolized by the drones in the hives of those little 
toilers whose cities are palaces of food. 

It will be well, however, to examine the great features in 
the commercial frauds of 1826, in their details. 

While Great Britain was exhibiting financial madness with 
regard to the establishment of joint-stock companies, many of 
the citizens of New York undertook to imitate it ; and the 
consequence was severe, not only upon the property and condi- 
tion of individuals, but upon the commercial character of 
many prominent citizens, whose families and friends were sadly 
grieved and mortified by the course which was pursued in 
terminating the speculations and enterprises which had been 
generated sometimes by fraudulent schemers, and sometimes 
by commercial enthusiasts. 

The panic began in 1825, but did not arrive at its full height 
till 1826, at the close of which the excitement in the public 
mind subsided. It is difficult to do justice to this subject with- 
in narrow limits. It may be said, however, that the quarrel 
between the two Advocates was the primal cause of the trials 
in which Jacob Barker and Henry Eckford were made very 
conspicuous. Mr. Noah commenced his attacks on these gen- 
tlemen in 1824, and he continued them till he saw both over- 
whelmed with tribulation. Hostilities were formed conse- 
quently ; and business relations having been interfered with, 
at least indirectly, the consequence was the indictment by the 
grand jury of the county of many prominent persons for a con- 
spiracy to defraud five public companies. Other trials against 
other persons, for being engaged in swindling the people in 
various ways by public companies and banks, were also set 
on foot. 



LIFE AND FIRE COMPANY. 73 

Concerning the Life and Fire Insurance Company, which 
failed on the 18th of July, these facts were made public. Bonds 
were out to the amount of $650,000. The company owed to 
Mr. Barker $130,000, and to Mr. Eckford $40,000 for advances. 
Mr. Barker was Assistant President of three companies ; namely, 
the Mercantile Insurance, the Dutchess County Insurance, and 
the Western Insurance Company of the village of Buffalo. To 
one of these institutions this company owed $89,000, to another 
$40,000 and to another $50,000, hut whether these latter debts 
were for money loaned, or to pay bonds, did not appear. If 
the company owed all this money, over and above its bonds, 
the debts of the institution amounted to about a million of dol- 
lars. The assets, as taken by the receiver, were about $20,000, 
and $500,000 in securities, two thirds of which were supposed 
to be good. In May it had $50,000 in dishonored notes in 
hand, and, being salaried men, the officers were bound to know 
the condition of the company. But what was the fact % The 
books had not been written up since 1824. The directors had 
all been cashiered; and Mr. Barker supplied all deficiencies. 
After the election of the president and secretary the directors 
were not called together. In the month of May a dividend of 
two per centum was declared and paid. By the charter the 
payments should have been made from profits. In this ease it 
was made while the company struggled for existence. The 
directors did not declare the dividend. It was done by some- 
body, however, and to facilitate the circulation of the bonds ; 
and the men who conspired and confederated to influence the 
community, knowing the institution to be unsound, were held 
by Judge Edwards to be conspirators within the meaning of 
the law. Nine persons were in the original indictment. Some 
of them were found guilty. Others claimed separate trials, and 
thus the courts were kept busy for a long period. The jury 
on the case were kept in close confinement for a month. Mr. 
Barker defended his own cause, and with much ability. A 
sequel to this necessarily brief history will be given in the next 
chapter. 

In addition to this case, persons connected with the Sun Fire 

4 



71 A REPORTER AND REFORMER. 

Insurance Company were indicted. One of these pleaded 
guilty. • Another had a separate trial granted to him. - 

An indictment was found against the cashier of the Morris 
Canal Bank, but a nolle prosequi was entered in this case. 

The President and the Secretary of the United States Lom- 
bard Association were subjected, also, to a legal examination. 
Only ten per centum of the capital of this institution was paid 
in, and on the strength of it, within one year, bonds were issued 
to the amount of more than a million of dollars. 

It is impossible to afford space for even a brief outline of all 
the fraudulent transactions of the period. The New Jersey 
Protection and Lombard Bank, which failed in 1825, exhibited 
for its assets only $4,000 and an individual note for $100,000, 
and had $170,000 in bank notes in circulation. One broker 
testified, that though the President told him that he had a 
salary of $600 per week, he believed the institution so safe 
that he did not hesitate to put $40,000 of the bank notes 
in circulation, chiefly among the people engaged in vessels on 
the Hudson river. 

The applications to the Legislature of 1826 for charters from 
public companies, which proposed to act upon an aggregate 
capital of $66,000,000, were numerous. 

In such a condition of society, to the secret action of which 
Mr. Bennett was no stranger, is it not reasonable to suppose 
that he learned the necessity for a reform that would protect 
the people from such madness and extravagance, from such 
scheming and illegitimate financial operations — operations which 
the law only paralyzed for a time, but did not crush ? And 
why, it may be asked, did he not lay the axe at the root of the 
evil % It may be answered. He was not independent of those 
who employed him. He had not the power, whatever may have 
been his will, to cope with the corrupt currents of capital which 
were draining the people of their hard earnings. It remained 
for him to grapple with the evil at a later day. Yet he did 
enough to gain the enmity of certain minds with whose prac- 
tices in lottery offices and banks he had contended, and they 
have done their part to call the integrity of his course as a 



DEATHS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 75 

public journalist by any other than a correct or philosophical 
name. His errors should not be justified ; but it is only fair 
that the motives which prompted him to expose, on public 
grounds, chicanery and fraud, should be respected. If he had 
been enriched by what he did, who assisted him 1 No man. 
No fact has disproved that he was not from the outset a sincere 
reformer of public abuses — for he remained poor in the midst 
of corruption, bribery, and temptation — and while he was 
employed in reporting and commenting on the public trials of 
this dark period, when money flowed like water to convert 
truth into a lie. 

As a reporter Mr. Bennett distinguished himself during all 
the trials brought forward by the energy of Hugh Maxwell, the 
district attorney. In fact, the public journals were indebted to 
Mr. Bennett for the report of the important charge of Judge 
Edwards, taken down verbatim as it was delivered. 

The Fourth of July of 1826 was the fiftieth anniversary of 
the Declaration of the Independence of the United States. 
The author of that document, Thomas Jefferson, ex-President 
of the United States, and John Adams, one of its most patriotic 
signers, and an ex-President, also, had lived to behold the light 
of the day that marked half a century of political blessings to 
a growing and vigorous people. When the sun had set, the 
body of the former was cold in death in Virginia, and that of 
the latter in the sleep of the tomb, in Massachusetts — in two 
States which were earliest in the field to consecrate with the 
best blood of their citizens the erection of a political altar 
founded on the experience and wisdom of all previous ages. 
"In death they were not divided." 

This fact, called remarkable by a world careless in observing 
events, created a feeling of awe throughout the country. La- 
fayette had left the land for the last time a few months before, 
and these two original signers of the great charter of American 
freedom — the two who had toiled to behold its theory sustained 
in practice, were permitted to end life together. They left 
another ex-President behind them — one of their compatriots — 
and he, too, subsequently, on the anniversary of the birth of 



76 TARGET FOR JOURNALS. 

Freedom, departed to re-join the spirits of those who had pre- 
ceded him. 

Mr. Jefferson, at the close of his life, was in no little anxiety 
of mind on account of his debts ; and a lottery was proposed 
and commenced, to obtain the means to ease the declining days 
of the patriot. The necessity for the act was soon obviated by 
his decease, and the nation was not obliged to witness the dis- 
graceful spectacle contemplated by the self-styled admirers of 
the great author and statesman. 

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were not ordinary 
thinkers. They had original minds, and such were their indus- 
trious habits that they left to their country valuable legacies in 
their public writings. Congress purchased Mr. Jefferson's 
library of documents and pamphlets, and they are a mine of 
treasures to the political student. No man can hope to become 
acquainted with American institutions unless he studies the 
political views of both these fathers of the Republic ; and as 
their opinions are accessible, there can be no apology for 
neglecting a duty that will involve in its exercise an intel- 
lectual pleasure of the most refined and elevated character. 

Towards the close of 1826, Mr. Bennett was so well known 
to the journalists of New York, that they selected him as a 
target. He was not grossly assailed, but his opinions were 
censured because he was a foreigner, for at that time even the 
organ of the Democratic party was opposed to too much of the 
foreign element. It kept in agitation the spirit of 1812-15. 
Mr. Bennett, however, was always ready with a good-natured 
paragraph to ward off such puerile attacks, and he seems to 
have enjoyed every opportunity to answer this particular kind 
of charge. 

Mr. Bennett's reviews of dramatic novelties included the 
great performances of Cooper and Conway. Mr. Conway 
arrived in the country in the autumn of 1825. He was eccen- 
tric in his habits, and soon after his ordination as an Episcopal 
clergyman lost his life near Charleston harbor. He was an 
artist of the Kemble school. 

Mr. Macready, the English tragedian, appeared for the first 



macready's first visit. 7? 

time in America, October 9th, and immediately commanded a 
degree of popular admiration that has never been surpassed. 
In Boston, probably from a disposition to show that the feeling 
against Edmund Kean was not anti-English, the excitement 
caused by the performances of Mr. Macready was remarkable. 
The box tickets were sold at auction, and the gallery tickets 
were sold at five times their usual price. The sojourn of this 
gentleman was a brief one. He left the country on the 11th 
of June, 1827. 



NATIONAL REPUBLICANS. 



CHAPTER V 



Mr. Bennett, after the State elections of 1826, began his 
career as an active politician, but yet exerted himself in so 
quiet a manner as not to attract public attention till the 
autumn of 1827, which introduced many young minds into the 
field of party politics, and led to the Young Men's Convention 
in favor of John Quincy Adams, held at Utica on the 12th of 
August, 1828, at which "William H. Seward presided. Men 
opposed to Andrew Jackson then called themselves National 
Republicans, and subsequently have been known as Whigs, 
engrafting on their stock, particularly in the State of New 
York, Anti-masonry and other political inventions, to add to 
their power and numbers as a party, and usually weakening 
their organization by the very anxiety to embrace in it those 
who have been zealous with any fresh political theory. More 
democratic in fact in their principles than the Democratic 
party, they have usually failed as an opposition, till a necessity 
has been created for new organizations on both sides of the 
political arena. 

Mr. Bennett, after the spring of 1827, applied himself to such 
duties on the Press as he could make useful to himself and to 
others. He went to Washington and stayed there till he ob- 
tained a situation on the Enquirer. He did not continue any 
longer as a contributor to the National Advocate, because Mr. 
Conant purchased a portion of the journal, and turned its poli- 
tics into a channel favorable to the cause of John Quincy 
Adams, to whose course Mr. Bennett was politically op- 
posed. 

Prior, however, to the change in the editorial course of the 



GOOD SOCIETY. 79 

National Advocate Mr, Bennett introduced Martin Van Buren 
as a prominent man for elevation by the Democratic party — an 
introduction that was deemed important to those who were 
looking forward for political leaders on which to concentrate 
the strength of the organization. The fact is an impor- 
tant one, as in the history of events which followed, it will be 
seen what a thankless suggestion this proved to be in the end, 
and how it led to a train of consequences which ultimately 
surrounded Mr. Bennett's progress as a party journalist with 
difficulties and embarrassments. This act of Mr. Bennett's 
for the re-election of Mr. Van Buren to the Senate of the 
United States, was done under a fire of threats from Wash- 
ington. 

Thrown upon his own resources once more, and while look- 
ing forward to some favorable employment, Mr. Bennett was 
soon selected by Mr. Noah to fill the place occupied till his 
death by W. G. Graham, who, as the associate editor of the 
Enquirer, had become celebrated for the easy style of his 
writings, which chiefly were devoted to expositions of what 
was called " Good Society," or to kindred topics. He was the 
author of some of the papers under that designation. Others 
have been attributed to the pen of Mr. Bennett. They were 
very popular in the day of their publication. 

On the 28th of November, Mr. Graham fell in a duel at 
Hoboken, which arose from a quarrel with the son of a Phila- 
delphia physician at a game of cards. The body, which had 
been concealed for some time, was finally disinterred, and a 
coroner's inquest was held upon it. The verdict was, that Mr. 
Graham died of wounds at the hands of some person or per- 
sons unknown, when it was notorious who fired the fatal 
shot, and who were responsible for the death. Mr. Graham 
had ridiculed duelling a few days before he engaged in this 
affair, and then, strangely enough, became a victim himself to 
this barbarous custom of " good society." 

Mr. Noah was not aware of Mr. Graham's intentions when 
the latter left the office for the last time, and this encounter, 
therefore, could not be avoided through his advice, as it would 



80 TAMMANY HALL. 

have been, probably, bad be been entrusted with the secret 
connected with the fashionable murder. 

Such duels were not uncommon on the part of journalists, 
and as those which were fatal are the chief ones placed upon 
public record, it is impossible adequately to present a true pic- 
ture of the extent of such practices. It is certainly true, how- 
ever, that the conductors of the Press did not confine their 
quarrels to libels or personal invectives. Of course, men who 
grew up with the institution had to yield against all the sug- 
gestions of good taste to prevailing usages, or else be subjected 
to the jeers and taunts of those who indulged in the disgraceful 
ribaldry and abuse which were the common weapons of war- 
fare. 

Mr. Bennett in this year was a recognized member of the 
Tammany party, whose meetings took place at Tammany 
Hall, so often distinguished in the political history of the 
country. The Tammany Society was incorporated soon after 
the Revolution. Many of the soldiers and sages of the repub- 
lic became members of it ; for it was based upon the broadest 
republican principles. It was in favor of a government by the 
people, of freedom of speech and religion, and of the liberty of 
the Press. Originally established for benevolent purposes, it 
became political as soon as an aristocratic element was sus- 
pected to be growing strong, favorable to a standing army and 
extensive navy in time of peace, to heavy taxes, and to alien 
and sedition laws, such as were in vogue in the time of the 
elder Adams, when a large party desired to empower the 
President so that he could expel suspected foreigners from the 
soil of the United States. 

In the civil commotion of 1800 the Tammany Society was 
the headquarters of principle, and so continued to be for many 
years. In the last war with Great Britain, 1812-15, Tammany 
Hall was the high political exchange of New York. It was 
there that the officers of the army and navy were welcomed, 
when all other doors were closed against them. It was there 
that the great victory over a powerful faction was achieved in 
1817, and those other political victories which have illustrated 



MAXWELL AND ECKFORD. 81 

the true power of the people, although frequently disgraced by 
the false-hearted and feigned enthusiasm of demagogues, and 
the oratorical plasticity of masquerading aristocrats. 

The year 1827 also closed with much excitement in the busi- 
ness and social circles of New York, arising from a supposed 
challenge to Hugh Maxwell from Henry Eckford. Affidavits 
and counter affidavits were published to prove that Mr. Eckford 
did, and did not, intend to engage in a duel, and public expla- 
nations were made of the cause of dissatisfaction on the part 
of Mr. Eckford with the district attorney. The latter had 
privately expressed his opinion that Mr. Eckford was not 
guilty of the charges upon which the grand jury had found a 
bill against him ; that he had been made the victim of the base 
conduct of others ; and that his character stood as high for 
integrity as at any former period. Mr. Maxwell admitted this, 
but did not feel that there was any propriety for him publicly 
to express his private opinion, the motive for which Mr. Eck- 
ford would not, or could not, see, although Mr. Maxwell was 
in office. 

This controversy brought out Mr. Eckford's brief history of 
the facts connected with the trials, and as a portion of it con- 
tains some matter not already alluded to, and will complete 
the story of the Commercial Frauds of 1826, there is no neces- 
sity to apologize for its introduction here : 

" In July, 1826, the sudden" and unexpected failure of seve- 
ral incorporated companies — in one of which I had, unfortu- 
nately, allowed my name to be used — caused a considerable 
ferment in the city. The excitement was kept up by insidious 
and inflammatory publications, destitute alike of truth and of 
decency ; and thus the public mind was prepared to immolate, 
without inquiry, any victim that might be offered. 

" Under such circumstances a grand jury was empannelled, 
and indictments -were preferred against me. You entered, 
unasked" [this charge was denied by the members of the jury, 
who certified that they solicited Mr. Maxwell's presence during 
the investigation] "into the sanctuary of their deliberations, 
examined many, if not all the witnesses, and remained in the 

4* 



b2 GRAND JURY DELIBERATIONS. 

jury-room until the final vote was taken. A second, and a 
third, were successively offered and found against me by the 
same, or another grand jury, under the same circumstances, 
and through similar efforts. I had formerly believed that the 
sittings of a grand jury and their deliberations were secret, and 
sacred from intrusion or violation even by a public officer, 
whatever be his station- — that a district attorney, or an attor- 
ney general, had no more right than another person to invade 
their privileges — that he visited them only when solicited to 
solve some legal doubt, and respectfully retired, when that duty 
was performed. And I have lately seen in the newspapers, 
that the Supreme Court of this State condemned the conduct 
of a district attorney in one of the northern counties, who had 
introduced himself, uninvited, on the deliberations of a grand 
jury. Before this era — the period of these indictments — it 
was believed that the deliberations of a grand jury were to be 
altogether unbiassed ; that they were to examine the witnesses, 
and form their own conclusions, on facts, in their own way, 
wholly uninfluenced by extrinsic aid or opinion." 

Mr. Eckford proceeds to complain that the reports in the 
public journals were continued during the finding of the several 
indictments, and that Mr. Maxwell boasted in private, that is, 
out of court, that he would undoubtedly convict him ; and he 
adds, in his letter to the district attorney : 

" By such means, sir, the public mind was kept in a continued 
state of excitement until the trial was ended — a period of two 
months and a half from the time the first indictment was 
found. In September, 1826, came on the trial of the indict- 
ment, which you had amended so as to include seven others in 
it. What object you had in view by adoptiug such an unusual 
course it is perhaps difficult to say, but certainly it was admi- 
rably calculated to destroy the chance of a fair trial, and most 
assuredly had that effect. 

" In your opening speech you avowed, with exultation, that 
you were the sole author of the prosecution, and claimed exclu- 
sively all the honor which the result might merit. You pro- 
nounced me a swindler and conspirator, declared that I was 



TRIALS AND CONVICTIONS. 83 

insolvent in 1824, and demanded my conviction as necessary 
to satisfy the just vengeance of the law, and to appease the 
public clamor. The scene was altogether theatrical. The 
boisterous plaudits were expressed and endured, and I am 
sorry to add, were manifestly received by you with compla- 
cency. * * * Before the testimony began I was already 
convicted in the minds of nine tenths of the audience of every 
crime with which it suited your pleasure to load me. Never- 
theless, the trial proceeded, and after twenty-eight days of 
strife and debate, and virulent abuse, the jury were charged, 
and retired, deliberated for some time, and could not agree. 
No verdict was given, and the further trial was put off to a 
future occasion. 

" At the courts which were in March, June, and September 
of this year (1827), I offered myself for trial — nay, I entreated 
that my trial might then be had, and pressed my counsel to 
urge upon the court the misery endured by myself and family, 
the loss of reputation, the prostration of credit, and the sus- 
pension of my ordinary occupations ; but it was in vain. 
* * * I hasten to the concluding act of the drama. A 
conviction of persons, connected with other companies, had 
been obtained by you in the month of December, 1826, on 
similar indictments (supported, however, by very different tes- 
timony), and the persons thus convicted were sentenced to the 
Penitentiary, and there imprisoned. They removed the causes 
by writs of error, into the court for the Trial of Impeachments 
ind the Correction of Errors, the last and highest judicial 
tribunal of our country, where it was decided in the month of 
October last — in accordance with the opinion delivered by 
Chancellor Jones — that even in the case of these dependants, 
mere was nothing criminal in the eye of the law, in the facts 
stated ; and that the parties injured, if any there were, might 
have ample remedy by civil action." 

The concluding portion of this letter to Mr. Maxwell, dated 
December 15th, contained some sharp language upon the 
course he had pursued, and having failed in its purpose, John 
P. Decatur, of the United States' navy, a friend of Mr. Eck- 



84 EDITORS MERE SCRIBES. 

ford's, called at the house of Mr. Maxwell, where he conversed 
with that gentleman. This interview was construed into a 
provisional meeting for a duel, by W. H. Maxwell, who was 
present, as well as by the district attorney, who stopped the 
proceedings by placing the subject before the police. The 
matter, therefore, terminated by the publication of a note, 
dated December 18th, which contained these words. It was 
signed by Henry Eckford : 

" Your real character is at length unmasked. You have 
exhibited yourself as a man wholly destitute of truth and 
honor, and have, in addition, proved yourself a contemptible 
poltroon. 

" You can only be noticed in future by gentlemen as a 
cowardly retailer of falsehoods, and as the pitiful tool of other 
artful and vindictive miscreants." 

There is a value in such specimens of epistolary correspond- 
ence found in the files of the old journals. No respectable 
journalist would publish in these days anything so disgraceful 
to a man's taste or judgment. Yet this letter originally 
appeared in the most fashionable paper of the city, and such a 
fact could not but have its influence in encouraging any young 
journalist to permit similar manifestations of personal hatred 
to come before the public. When prominent citizens, and men 
in office even, were disposed to destroy character, was it 
strange that they should have moulded the Press to something 
like their own temper and spirit — particularly as the journal- 
ists were usually little more than secretaries dependent upon 
cliques of politicians, merchants, brokers, and office-seekers for 
their position and bread — subjected to many bad counsels, and 
not always able and independent enough to resist the demands 
of passion and selfishness ? If society be ruled by the leading 
members of it, then is it accountable for all the fashions and 
practices which it encourages, and Journalism and journalists 
ought not to bear all the odium which is excited by the pecu- 
liar tastes of the community. At least, no candid mind will 
deny that the faults of the Press in the United States, in many 
cases, have been chargeable justly to those who have been its 



STUDIES AND IMPROVEMENT. 85 

actual proprietors, and always to the encouragement given to 
its errors by the community. As the progress of Mr. Bennett 
and the Press is traced, it will not be difficult to find something 
like a necessity existing for the evils which have been dis- 
played in the history of Journalism in its advancement to- 
wards its present condition and prospects. 

Mr. Bennett, near the close of the year, residing in "Washing 
ton, was engaged in corresponding for the Enquirer, and in 
studying minutely the political history of the country. His 
days were devoted to investigations, and his nights were 
passed in embodying in his correspondence such views as he 
deemed interesting to the political, social, and commercial 
world. Among his letters is found a warm recommendation 
for the establishment of a mail to the Pacific by the way of the 
isthmus of Panama, which, in the light of recent history, is an 
interesting fact, and shows that he fully appreciated the value 
of a direct communication with eastern Asia by this channel, 
which, now opened by the enterprise of Americans, saves a 
voyage around the southern cape of the continent of the 
average duration of five months, with all the expenses at- 
tending it. 

Mr. Bennett improved his style of composition after 1825, 
and with his higher position on the Press, began to make him- 
self equal to the tasks which he undertook. When he com- 
menced his career as a journalist, he did not choose his subjects 
with much taste, and wrote too much for the gratification of a 
public appetite, that, with the increase of books and news- 
papers, happily has abated, much to the credit of the people, 
and to the satisfaction of those who are necessarily brought 
into contact with the literature of the country. 

In speaking of politics, in a long letter, a part of which is 
devoted to affairs at Washington, and a part to the society 
found there, he introduces the latter portion by saying : 

" Enough of politics for the present. It is often a dull, dry, 
and somewhat deceiving subject ; yet it is full of fascination to 
minds of a certain cast. With it is mixed up human passion 
and feelings. It is the moral ocean of a nation. It ebbs and 



86 WINES AND TEAS. 

flows like its prototype, heaving some fortunate individuals on 
the tops of its billows, and overwhelming others in the gulf of 
forgetfulness ; — but from these tumblings and tossings arises 
the purity of the whole mass of national feelings." 

In one of his letters Mr. Bennett commented on Mr. Rush's 
report on the proposed tariff, in which was recommended a 
reduction of duties on wines and teas. A couple of paragraphs 
will exhibit the character of his style at this period of his 
career. 

" The old-fashioned New York, exclusive Madeira drinker, it 
is true, finds no favor in the secretary's eyes. He is doomed 
to go on, paying his dollar a gallon to government for every 
genuine gallon of Madeira he consumes ; but we that are 
liberal, and catholic, and tolerant in our potations, and hold all 
good wines to be good, have the pleasant prospect opened to 
us of being enabled, as Mr. Rush promises us, to drink * the 
superior wines of France, those of the Rhine, Spain, Portugal, 
and the Italian States, and perhaps of some other countries,' at 
a reasonable rate. The imagination warms, and the brain 
absolutely turns round and grows giddy at the thought of it. 
What visions open of oceans of champagne, and La Fitte, and 
Burgundy, of every delicious growth and exquisite flavor, of 
Moselle and old Hock, of Sherry and Alicant, of old Port and 
dry Lisbon, of Muscadine, Lacryma Ohristi, and Monte Pul- 
ciano — all at half price, to say nothing of the wines of Greece, 
Cyprus, and the Cape of Good Hope ! 

" Moreover, the reduction of the duties on tea is likewise a 
good measure. There are sound reasons of public policy in 
support of it, some of which Mr. Rush has touched upon, and 
others which he has omitted. But for my own part I am not 
ashamed to say that I like it for private reasons, — because I 
am as inveterate, and hardened, and shameless a tea drinker as 
Leigh Hunt, or old Sam Johnson, and, therefore, fully sympa- 
thize with those good people in every quarter of our country, 
who, as the great English moralist says, with a declamatory 
grandeur suited to the deep interest he felt in his subject — 
' dilute their meals with the infusion of this fascinating plant — 



SQUINT-EYED AND SQUINT-HEARTED. 87 

whose kettle is never allowed time to cool— who with tea wel- 
come the morning — with tea amuse the evening, and with tea 
solace the midnight.' " 

It was during his labors at Washington that Mr. Bennett 
injured his eyes by application at night to his studies. He 
has since been, as it is vulgarly called, squint-eyed. For this 
misfortune, arising from an honorable zeal, he has been jeered 
at by enemies, but he has answered, that he thanks Heaven he 
is not, like many of his antagonists, squint-hearted ! Like 
John Wilkes, the political writer, he has borne this infliction 
of Providence with due submission, and frequently has alluded 
to it with a kind of philosophical pride, and in a strain of 
humor at once grotesque and admirable. Mr. Bennett bears 
more than a simple resemblance to John Wilkes. The latter 
endeavored to learn by experiment what the world meant by 
the freedom of the Press, and Mr. Bennett has been in the 
same field of inquiry, although he has never gone so far as 
many of his contemporaries in New York, who, within thirty- 
five years, have been wholly heartless as well as tasteless. 
Many of the reputable journalists committed acts of gross 
calumny, and indulged in the lowest species of invective. The 
proof will be found in files of the newspapers. Even examples 
shall not stain these pages. 

Mr. Bennett, in the course of 1827, wrote on many subjects. 
The political ones, so far as the action of Congress is con- 
cerned, were unimportant. A bankruptcy law was proposed, 
but was not favorably received in the Senate of the United 
States, on the ground that it would aid merchants and no 
other class. In society the Greek cause, which had created 
much sympathy for two years, was a favorite theme, and con- 
tributions were made to aid the descendants of the classic land 
of song, oratory, arts, and government. All the poets of the 
country were inspired by the subject. In public amusements, 
music and the drama of every shape were at rivalry. The 
youthful Grarcia, Malibran, received six hundred dollars per 
night, or ten thousand dollars for seventeen performances at 
the Bowery Theatre, where Edwin Forrest continued to per- 



88 DRAMATIC STARS. 

form — the French ballet was illustrated by Hutin, Achille, and 
Celeste, while English opera was sustained by the talents of 
Miss George, Pearrnan, C. E. Horn, Keene, and others. At 
the Park Theatre, Conway and Macready performed together, 
and Lydia Kelly, Clara Fisher, Miss Rock, Matthews, and 
other luminaries, gave brilliancy to the establishment. Madame 
Milon appeared in French opera. Such a variety of talent 
has not been known in the metropolis since that period. There 
were at least thirty performers in the stock companies, who 
would be called stars of the first magnitude in the present 
mercantile state of the stage. The Press then encouraged 
young artists. Its object now seems to be to make them un- 
popular, and to sustain a kind of mediocrity that eventually 
must destroy the acted drama. 



BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 89 



CHAPTER VI 



At the approach of the Presidential election of 1828, the 
journals throughout the "United States, opposed to the election 
of Andrew Jackson, knew no limit to expressions of contempt 
for the talents of the " hero of New Orleans," where, when the 
celebrated battle was fought under his direction, the British 
forces were routed with a loss of seven hundred men, the cap- 
ture of five hundred, and fourteen hundred wounded, while the 
American loss was only six private soldiers, and seven wound- 
ed — a battle which will always claim renown while the arts of 
war are admired and encouraged. 

Mr. Bennett's devotion to the man selected by the Demo 
cratic party caused him to spare no labor to defeat the machi 
nations of political enemies. As the flood of calumny swept 
on, he used every exertion to confine it to the channels where 
it originated, or to force it back to stagnate at its source. He 
had suffered in his zeal to acquaint himself with every subject 
that might be useful in the tactics of a contest such as had 
never been exceeded in virulence in the political history of the 
country. Not a moment that could be well used in the cause 
was lost ; and to this end every document that could throw 
light upon the history of the past, or afforded a gleam of hope 
for the future, was drawn from dusty recesses, to be used as 
occasion should require. The library of Congress became 
familiar from frequent visits, and its stores of facts were ran- 
sacked by an enthusiasm, patience, and perseverance, which 
were to give their rewards, not then only, but through a life-time. 

As an instance of that minuteness with which Mr. Bennett 
sometimes undertook to repel a political slander, the subjoined 



90 AUTOGRAPHIC ORTHOGRAPHY. 

article lias a varied interest. It was embraced in one of his 
letters to the Enquirer. 

" You have doubtless read whole columns in the coalition 
papers attempting to show that General Jackson cannot spell, 
read, or write. I was amusing myself the other day in the 
library of Congress, where the fine' ladies and gentlemem con- 
gregate to talk on politics, literature, fashion, and dress, and by 
chance came to examine those facsimiles of men of renown, 
which are generally inserted in their biographies. 

" Who would dare to say that Edmund Burke could not 
spell 1 Yet I can prove it by ' construction ' and following 
literally the exact form of his letters. In Prior's Life of 
Burke, published in 1824, there are two facsimile receipts in 
Burke's autograph to Dodsley, in which there are five words 
in forty misspelled — such as rej ester for register, biy for being, 
annial for annual, &c. In Pope's autograph of the translation 
of the Iliad, contained in D 'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, 
several of his words could be ' construed ' into errors — such as 
illustrous for illustrious, bey for boy, Hecter for Hector, gental 
for gentle, and o thou at the beginning of a line of poetry. In 
an autograph frank of Joseph Addison, when Secretary of 
State, there is a mistake in his capital letters. 

" I could enumerate many other instances of a like nature ; 
but these will be in part sufficient to expose the folly of at- 
tempting to show that eminent men cannot spell, provided 
their words are fastidiously examined. I could prove in the 
same way that Canova, the celebrated Italian artist, and Sir 
Christopher "Wren, the great English architect, could not spell 
their own names. Look at Napoleon's handwriting, and it 
would appear that he could not spell a single word. In a fac- 
simile of his celebrated autographic letter to the Prince Regent, 
in 1815, prefixed to the ' Memoirs of St. Helena,' there is 
scarcely a word spelled at all. Napoleon appeared to write as 
if he disdained spelling. The expression ' Je viens comme 
Themistocle ' is apparently written 'jvan commetemest,' and 
where the word ' divisent ' occurs in the phrase ' aux factions 
qui divisent,' he spells it without the last syllable, as ' divis.' 



SELECTION OF BOOKS. 91 

" One of the most curious instances of bad spelling is con- 
tained in the Life of Elbridge Gerry, by James T. Austin, a 
work just published in Boston. In this volume there is a,fac 
simile of Gerry's handwriting, in which carried is spelled car- 
red, colonies spelled as colenies, besides several other words 
which could very easily be construed into blunders. The most 
curious is a mistake in Gerry's own Christian name ; for by an 
examination it will be found that he spells Elbridge by substi- 
tuting an I for a b — thus, Ellridge. I have recently seen seve- 
ral manuscripts of other great men of this country. Jefferson 
begins no other sentence with a capital letter but the first word 
of a paragraph. 

"This is also somewhat the practice of General Jackson, 
whose handwriting is rapid and flowing, and it has been imput- 
ed to him as a species of ignorance. The Rev. and Hon. Ed- 
ward Everett studs capitals throughout his autograph. Judge 
Story's handwriting, like Napoleon's,- is a species of steno- 
graphy — a little more intelligible ; but by cabinet ' construction' 
he could very easily be proved to spell every seventh word 
wrong. I have this moment before me the handwriting of the 
late lamented De Witt Clinton, and also that of the Secretary 
of the Navy. 

" I hope your readers and the world will pardon me for 
naming one of the Domine Sampsons of the Cabinet in the 
same breath with the great men of the age. In the middle 
ages of Europe, the statesman or warrior was always accom- 
panied by his clown, dressed in his cap and bells. To return, 
however. In a page of De Witt Clinton's autograph, contain- 
ing seventeen lines, three words of every line could be con- 
strued into misspellings. By the same rule, every fourth word 
in Secretary Southard's autograph is most miserably mis- 
spelled." 

Now, in the above extracts, there is proof enough, not only 
that Mr. Bennett had scholarly habits, but that many of the 
books selected by him, were of that order, which would give him 
the clearest insight, not only into the views of statesmen, but 
into those political principles, which have been incorporated 



92 A BUSINESS MAN. 

into the experiences and practices of governments, while there 
were other works of a lighter character, which were not over- 
looked by his inquisitive mind. The works named by him, and 
the allusions to Oanova, Sir Christopher Wren, and others, seem 
to indicate that he must have become acquainted with the 
biographies of these men. It is quite probable that he strength- 
ened his mind for the struggles which he soon after encountered 
by a perusal of the history of Oanova and Wren. Certainly, the 
narration of Wren's steady application to the end and objects 
of his profession, to the architectural reform of St. Paul's 
cathedral, and to his other labors, could have no less effect than 
to stimulate an ambitious disposition, grappling with difficulties, 
while the zeal of Canova in another school of art, that led to the 
highest triumphs, must have inspired the enthusiasm of the 
student. The Life of Gerry has no world-wide interest ; but 
that a "foreigner " should search it to become acquainted with 
the temper of the old men of Massachusetts in the days of the 
Revolution, shows that he was ready to learn everything that 
could add light to the political history of the country. 

It has been said, publicly and privately, that Mr. Bennett is 
a mere business man in search of money, which he has acquired 
in abundance. It is a gross slander. Few men have less 
regard for money in itself considered — few are more prepared 
to part with it for the benefit of others, under proper circum- 
stances. More of this hereafter; but let it not be supposed 
that he is not, and has not always been, a student, and the 
actual, and not nominal author of the essays which are stamped 
with the peculiarities of his own mind. 

Mr. Bennett remained at Washington, corresponding with 
his usual fidelity for the Enquirer, and giving that journal every 
item of political intelligence that could be useful to its columns, 
gleaning information by an indefatigable promptitude on all 
occasions, and by a constant intercourse with the most intelli- 
gent men at the Federal capital. It is sufficient to say that he 
commanded the respect and attention of men in the highest 
position of society, not less by his amiability and urbanity of 
character, than by his strict habits of business, and the avoid 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM. 93 

ance of those indulgences which have so often proved the 
ruin of literary men. 

At the close of April, the necessity of relaxation from his 
studies induced him to visit Virginia for a few days, where he 
had an opportunity of becoming familiar with the hospitalities 
and manners of the good people of the " Old Dominion." He 
returned to Washington on the 3d of May, and again renewed 
his labors in the cause of Journalism — filling up his otherwise 
unemployed studies by investigations into the mental and poli- 
tical materials of the two houses of Congress. It requires but 
little penetration to discover that it was in watching the debates 
in Congress, and the transactions of the government, that Mr* 
Bennett acquired a fund of knowledge that has served his 
purpose in the varied political discussions which have arisen 
within the last thirty years, all demanding from him some 
notice, and frequently very determined action. Had he not 
thus established a foundation for his course on the leading sub- 
jects of national controversy, he never could have been so 
prompt and ready, at a moment's notice, to give an opinion, or 
to illustrate a position. Even his naturally clear and swift 
perceptions would not have served his need, as they have, in 
many a crisis. Close study might have done much, but it 
never could have given him those interior views of political 
action which seldom pass into historical records — the spirit that 
prompts men to action, and not the actions themselves. 

Mr. Bennett's correspondence and editorials during this year, 
were frequently freighted with " woollens." It was the year 
when the Tariff question came up in so powerful a shape as to 
excite Southern apprehensions. The South declared that the 
proposed measure would place burdens and not benefits on 
its people. The American System was a Northern one — pro- 
tection to domestic manufactures. About the year 1818-19 
American importers, chiefly Boston men, visited Europe, and 
studied the factory systems of Holland, France, and England. 
They conceived the plan of turning the water power of New 
England to good account, and by the year 1820 had introduced 
calico printers from the old country. The first piece of calico 



94 QUARRELS. 

printed hi tills country was a striped jean, of which a portion 
is in the writer's possession. It has been in constant use, and 
is yet firm and fast in color — unlike the flimsy fabrics of the 
present day. The factories of Lowell, Lawrence, Saco, and 
Dover, have sprung from the small beginnings of importers, 
who had the sagacity to change their business, and to commence 
the good work of American manufactures. 

Mr. Bennett sided with the democracy in his views on a 
tariff, which, since that established in 1824, had operated 
unfavorably, as was alleged, upon the Southern portion of the 
Union, so much so, indeed, as to become a test question in the 
approaching Presidential election. John Quincy Adams was 
the friend of the American System — Andrew Jackson, although 
favorable to a tariff before the election of his rival, was now 
opposed to it. This was enough for the friends of the latter, 
and they did not neglect to make every trumpet vocal with 
remonstrance against such " iniquitous proceedings " as were 
advocated by the Northern men. Hence the war on the tariff 
down to the present day. 

While Mr. Bennett was employing his time in editorial labors 
on the Enquirer, after his return from Washington, he had his 
daily duties diversified by many of those little quarrels among 
his brethren, which have so conspicuous a place in the historyof 
American Journalism. The Courier was increasing in interest. 
Between that paper and the Enquirer there was a war. One 
of the editors of the former was James G. Brooks, formerly 
the editor of the Minerva, a literary journal of considerable 
merit ; he was known, also, as a graceful poet. On the 19th 
of July, he posted Mr. Noah upon the walls of the city, thus : 

" I publish M. M. Noah of the Enquirer as a coward. 

James G. Brooks." 

Such stuff was only laughed at by sober citizens, but it fur- 
nishes one more example of the curious elements which sur- 
rounded a journalist, who was receiving his education at that 
time. In those days, duels were the favorite methods of settling 
controversies. If a man's brain could not leceive an argument- 
there was a chance of its accepting a bullet. 



VAGABONDS OR VICTIMS. 96 

Mr. Noah certainly had trouble enough. This attack was 
made only a month after a recent partner of his, E. J. Roberts, had 
met him in the street and knocked him down — another fashion 
in vogue among those who were not skilled in lead and small- 
swords. Mr. Bennett, also, received some indignity of a similar 
kind, under some misapprehension by the party who struck him 
— but it was a comparatively trifling affair. Editors, however, 
were not the only sufferers from such brutality. In the heat 
of politics, fighting was almost as common as voting. Grave 
old gentlemen sometimes would be so stirred up as to break the 
peace without any remorse or reason. The reader should not 
forget this, and make due allowance for the established conven- 
tionalities of society. Particularly should it be remembered, 
that editors, if not, like actors, " vagabonds by act of Parlia- 
ment," were yet the victims of society. Scarcely a week passed 
by in which one of them, in some part of the country, did not 
engage in a fight or duel ; or that somebody did not indulge in 
the assumed privilege of inflicting personal chastisement for 
some fancied or real injury to himself, to his neighbor, or to 
his cause. These acts of barbarism are now uncommon ; but 
they had their influence in the period of their existence, and 
have been eradicated by the force of public opinion, which has 
taught men to estimate the Press and its conductors altogether 
from another point of view than that which was maintained 
twenty or thirty years ago. 

So far as a strict search has been able to establish truth, the 
writings of Mr. Bennett for the Press, at this time, were free 
from personal virulence. Indeed, he seems to have been 
desirous to establish more harmonious relations between jour- 
nalists than had existed ; but such seems to have been the 
jealousy and rivalry between them, that every essay to bring 
about so desirable a result failed in its purpose ; and perhaps 
it was from this fact — from the conviction that no such reforms 
as he sought could be produced by appeals to common sense — 
that he afterwards adopted another course, in which, though 
often wounded, he still remained whole, becoming the chief 
satirist of his class, and defending himself from the combined 



96 SUBJECTS OF ESSAYS. 

assaults of those who were spurred to the combat by the politi- 
cians who had determined, if possible, to destroy his influence. 

In August, Mr. Bennett made a tour to Saratoga, in his in- 
tercourse with society culling opinions and views as to the 
condition of popular feeling on many social and political subjects. 
In September he resumed his editorial position, and commented 
upon the libels of the politicians on Andrew Jackson ; upon 
the position of the United States Bank ; upon the threatened 
war between Russia and Turkey ; upon the literary topics 
which were prominent during the season ; upon J. N. Reynolds's 
proposed expedition to the Southern ocean ; upon Anne 
Royal's " Black-Book," and upon other subjects which attracted 
public attention. In all these articles, the peculiar characteris- 
tics of his mind are presented. 

In writing of Edward Everett and Robert Walsh, he said, 
the former "is superior to the latter. in genius, in industry, in 
imagination, in freshness of ideas, in short, in almost everything. 
In conversation Walsh is charming— full of anecdote, good 
sense, and vivacity ; but put him on paper, and he turns out 
to be dull enough in all conscience." 

The interest which Mr. Bennett had begun to take in politics 
is manifested very clearly by the increased attention given in 
his editorials to the political questions of the day. As a general 
truth, it may be said that the journals of that period were 
edited with little ability ; but there was an enthusiasm and 
spirit in the Enquirer which indicated that both Mr. Noah and 
Mr. Bennett were ready writers, and far in advance of their 
contemporaries of the Press. It is exceedingly amusing to 
trace Mr. Bennett's mind in some of the articles which proceeded 
from his pen. In them are seen something of that same style 
of amiable and quaint illustration that distinguishes his writings 
at the present time, particularly when he appeals to common 
sense through some figurative idea, that carries more weight 
with it than would a labored argument. To justify this opinion, 
a single specimen of his manner, when endeavoring to elevate 
the chances for Andrew Jackson's election, may be cited. 

" Economy in life is a most excellent thing. It is the golden 



PINE AND HICKORY. 97 

rule which leads to comfort, repose, independence, respectability, 
and happiness. Yet there is one mistaken idea abroad in the 
world which ought to be corrected. Cheapness, as Daniel 
Webster would say, cheapness, wholly, and nothing but cheap- 
ness, does not form economy. This is the cheap age — but is it 
the economical ? In every corner of the street there is a cheap 
shop, but is there an economical one 1 Boots, shoes, coats, 
pantaloons, hats, and. so forth, may be found in any part of the 
city at half price. Buy them, put them on, and wear them.* 
What then do we find ? Why they last less than half time. 
Good, substantial wearables, edibles, or drinkables, that cost 
very fair, moderate prices — not cheap, not under price, not less 
than costr — are always cheapest in the end. 

" Let a housekeeper buy a cord of wood at fourteen shillings. 
Very well ; it is dumped down at his door for two shillings 
more. Sawing, and every other item, bring it up to seventeen 
shillings. Yet this man is paying a dearer price for the whistle 
than if he gave twenty-five shillings, all items included, for the 
real sound, hickory wood. Many of the Adams men are keen, 
sensible fellows, particularly all those who admit, like men, that 
Kentucky and the West are gone, irrecoverably gone, from 
John Quincy. These men all prefer hickory -wood ; because 
buying dear and good, is, in fact, buying cheap and comfortably. 
The same rule serves through all the offices of life. If you 
want to buy a cheap, buy a good article. ' I never,' said the 
good old Tim Timpkins, the other day, ' I never buy at your 
under-prime-cost shops — I never go in steamboats that steam 
it at half-price, with a dinner included. If the boiler does not 
burst it is a miracle.' 

" A cheap age, that is to say, an age of cheap goods, cheap 
shops, cheap everything, is always a spendthrift luxurious age. 
Do you want proof 1 Look at the Adams party. They print 
cheap tracts, circulate cheap pamphlets, get up cheap coffin- 
hand bills, scrape together cheap barbecues, and all to put down 
Jackson ; and yet it is the most luxurious and expensive ad- 
ministration that this country ever had ; and Jackson is still up* 
They waste the money of the people, and then say, ' Oh, but 

5 



98 GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES. 

they were cheap — dog cheap — did not cost anything.' The 
best times were the old times ; the good Jeffersonian times, 
when good, sound, substantial wares brought a good sound sub- 
stantial price. In those days there was little paper money, 
and what there was, was as good as gold. Every one should 
pray that a few of the good principles of those times might 
return, that is, every one who has time to pray. Luxury and 
cheapness, improvidence and half-price, generally go together. 
Jackson, economy, reform, and sound principles, will make all 
things fair and square." 

One common charge against the administration of President 
John Quincy Adams was its extravagance and the expenditure 
of the public treasure. A sad lamentation went through the 
Press devoted to Jackson, on account of payments made for 
blacking boots for the Indian delegates at Washington, when it 
was known that they wore moccasins, and did not require the 
polishing of civilization. Two or three hundred dollars were ex- 
pended for fitting up the East Room with new furniture. The 
friends of Jackson wept over such a waste of the public money # ; 
and no doubt thousands gave their votes against Mr. Adams, 
under the belief that the government was very extravagant 
though it was not. Compared with the bold-faced spoils sys- 
tem ruling at Washington now, the government was then a 
model of economy and purity. The proof of this is found in 
the reports of the Treasury Department. The change took 
place after the re-election of Jackson, when the falsely-called 
democratic rulers, or rather servants of the people, imitated on 
a large scale the butlers and footmen of a British palace, who 
have regular wages, yet gain ten times the amount of their 
annual stipend, in perquisites obtained by very questionable 
means. This corrupt condition of the various departments of 
the government has become so chronic, that special officers will 
be required in a short time to examine in detail the public ex- 
penditures, and to make public reports on the expenses of the 
government offices. The people are not disposed to permit the 
expenses of carrying on the government to be increased as 
they have been within a few years past. 



FINANCIAL SUMMARY. 99 



CHAPTER VII 



The Presidential election of 1828 terminated in favor of 
Andrew Jackson, who received one hundred and seventy-eight 
electoral votes, while John Quincy Adams received only 
eighty -three. John C. Calhoun was elected Vice-President, 
by a majority nearly as large ; thus placing, as sectional poli- 
ticians designate them, two Southern men at the head of 
affairs. 

The beginning of the year 1829, therefore, was full of 
interest to the country, as innovations were anticipated in fin- 
ancial, commercial, and political life. The receipts into the 
National Treasury for four years, 1824 to 1827 inclusive, were 
ninety-eight millions of dollars. The expenses of the govern- 
ment, instalments, and interest of public debt, for the same 
time, ninety-five millions five hundred thousands of dollars. 
The importations amounted to three hundred and fifty millions 
of dollars, and the exportations for the four years were thir- 
teen millions of dollars less than the amount of imports. The 
amount of importations had increased fifteen per centum, in 
the four years ; and the shipping of the United States had 
increased in the same ratio. In 1828, twelve millions of dollars 
of the principal and interest of the public debt were paid, two 
millions of dollars more than had been paid annually for the 
four preceding years, leaving a debt of fifty-eight millions of 
dollars at the opening of the year 1829. 

It is well to bear these facts in mind, in order to compare 
them with others, when the mind proposes to reflect upon the 
financial theories which grew out of the fiscal action of the 
Federal government — a subject not to be fully noticed here, 

L. of C. 



100 MARTIN VAN BUREN. 

although it may be well to state that the common feeling against 
paper money, for several years, arose from the belief, not that 
paper cannot safely represent property, but that it did not, 
because the country was indisposed, as it has been ever, to be 
independent of the money power of London and Paris, by 
establishing a sound paper currency with property, not specie, 
as its basis — the result of which, would be its unchanging cha- 
racter with the world, and the removal of the possibility of a 
balance of trade against a country, unlimited in comparison to 
other lands, in resources and the power of production. 

Mr. Bennett was at Washington prior to the arrival of 
Andrew Jackson, and Mr. Noah visited the Federal capital, 
while his associate was there, both anxious as to the formation 
of the cabinet. Mr. Van Buren, in whose political progress 
and elevation Mr. Bennett had taken great interest, as shown 
by the public letters and editorial articles of the latter, making 
the former a permanent mark and sign, in the ranks of the 
democracy, had been named as Secretary of State, and Samuel 
P. Ingham for the Treasury. It seems to have been Mr. 
Bennett's pen that aided, largely, in drawing the " Magician,' r 
as Mr. Van Buren has been called, from a plodding, dull life, 
into a current which would sweep him into the Presidential 
chair ; and how Mr. Bennett's conversation and opinions were 
regarded at Washington, may be surmised by the fact, that 
every suggestion from him, seamed to meet with realization, 
while a portion of the Albany " Eegency " delighted in so 
able a coadjutor, and in time learned to adopt his advice. 

The time had now brought to Washington the newly elected 
President. He unostentatiously arrived, and prepared to 
assume the duties of his lofty station. On the 4th of March 
he was inaugurated, as he was, for a second term of office, in 
March, 1833. Mr. Bennett was present at the ceremonies on 
the first occasion, and naturally took a great interest in the 
proceedings, as they crowned the hopes of many severe labors, 
in behalf, not so much perhaps, of the man himself, as of the 
principles which were involved in the defeat of the Adams and 
Clay parties, to which he was a troublesome antagonist. He 



CHANGE IN GOVERNMENT. 101 

seems to have rejoiced, with no ordinary feeling, in the change 
that was to introduce a new administration of public affairs, a 
change that Mr. Willis in his American Monthly Magazine — 
published in Boston, amidst the usual difficulties and public 
indifference, as well as editorial hostility — at that day described 
with brevity and propriety : 

" The present administration is composed of individuals 
opposed to the former, as to their political sentiments and 
views. A new party has succeeded to power ; both profess to 
be republican. But as to the meaning and object of the Federal 
government, the leading characters of these two parties differ 
in opinion. The difference, too, is something more than in 
name, though it is sometimes said, that they disagree only as to 
men. The members of the late administration and their 
eminent coadjutors, were in favor of extending the powers of 
the general government, and of so interpreting the Constitution, 
as to justify the exercise of authority, in some cases, not 
clearly given them. The patronage of the government was 
increasing ; and a charge was made of a want of due economy, 
with what truth, we pretend not to determine. The present 
rulers profess a strong attachment to democratic and republi- 
can principles. They think the powers given by the Constitu- 
tion should not be exceeded by the agents of the people. 
They are more in favor of Sta>te Rights than the last adminis- 
tration." 

In describing the scenes which were incident to the ceremo- 
ny of inauguration, Mr. Bennett exhibited the enthusiasm of 
his nature, as stimulated by the event : 

" The Chief-Justice of the United States then administered 
the oath of office ; and thus, in the sight of Heaven and the 
surrounding multitude, was Andrew Jackson declared the chief 
of the only free and pure republic upon earth. The welkin 
rang with music and the feeling plaudits of the populace, 
beauty smiled and waved her kerchief — the first spring birds 
carolled their notes of joy, and nature poured her various 
offerings to the Giver of all good. The very marble of the 
pediment seemed to glow with life — Justice, with firmer grasp, 



102 CORONATION AND INAUGURATION. 

secured her scales — ' Hope, enchanted, smiled,' and the Genius 
of our country breathed a living defiance to the world. What 
a lesson for the monarchies of Europe ! The mummery of a 
coronation, with all its pomp and pageantry, sinks into merited 
insignificance, before the simple and sublime spectacle of twelve 
millions of freemen, imparting this Executive Trust to the 

MAN OF THEIR CHOICE." 

There is something beautiful in an enthusiasm unrepressed 
by a sense of the vanity and mockery which eventually chill 
the heart. That this was evoked by deep and sincere emo- 
tions, no one would doubt who could have seen Mr. Bennett at 
the coronation of Victoria in London in 1838, when he sur- 
rendered his seat in the midst of the gorgeous pageantry, and 
walked away from the scene to reflect upon the administration 
of human affairs, while quietly eating the better part of a roast 
fowl, for which his stomach had been prepared by " dancing 
attendance " on the insufferable delay which belongs to thrones 
and monarchies. The account, by Mr. Bennett's pen, of that 
royal show described his luncheon fully, and glowed with no 
such spirit as animated him at Washington, although thousands 
in the United States would have willingly justified any reas- 
onable favorable latitude of expression, at a time when hun- 
dred * of republicans and their families deemed it no occasion 
for Insh, when they avowed that they were going abroad to 
see donation, and never had been present at a Presiden- 

tial inau. iration. 

To appreciate one's own privileges and birthright, to admire 
with true zeal one's own country, its institutions and ceremo- 
nies, or the simple grandeur which may underlie its stern ex- 
ternal simplicity, is the lot only of those who are charmed with 
the philosophy of wisdom, and are untempted by the glare and 
glitter of a mere political conventionality and conformity. The 
pride of intellect can never have a greater fall than when it 
surrenders the memory of all that makes itself endurable, to 
the seductive pomp and circumstance which are the garments 
and garniture of the masked foe of native genius, originality, 
and enterprise. The allegiance of a republican to simple order 



ATTACHMENT TO REPUBLICANISM. 103 

is the best as it is the highest privilege known to man. The 
homage paid to democratic institutions is the fealty of un- 
shackled virtue and talent towards the great mass of uncon- 
taminated, unbribed, unfettered mind, as well as the acted 
charter of individual thought for the widest spread of human 
happiness. 

In a temper of the intellect fashioned by kindred sentiments 
to these, and in a probity of avowal that measured not expres- 
sion by the cold words of a timid though unwise prudence, did 
this comparatively young politician and journalist, when writing 
after President Jackson's inauguration, stamp upon the time 
the signet of his own thought. It appeared not in the address 
upon which an eager nation's eyes were strained to gaze. It 
stood not out in a studied shape from the surface of a cautiously 
moulded speech, edged and trimmed by the rhetorician's art. 
It was affixed to no parchment engrossed by the hand of a 
cunning politician, by which in the future an exemption might 
be claimed for the indulgence of expedients at the sacrifice of 
something higher and more permanent ; but it was in the swift 
and familiar epistle of an humble reporter and editor of the 
public Press, born the unmissed subject of the proudest throne 
in the Old World, that he laid down his heart, which time had 
wrought as into an intaglio, and left upon the page the impress 
of his devotion to the Genius of Republicanism. 

This might have been unheeded in itself, had Oa' not 

awakened the zeal of Justice to poise her scales, a , teach 
the world the weakness of the wrongers and the certainty of 
defeat in this country for reckless oppression. There, how- 
ever, is seen the seal of an active soul in behalf of republican- 
ism, and with it is conjoined the record of an earnest, busy 
life to elevate the spontaneous rapture of a moment into the 
solid political virtue of years — a virtue never dishearten d by 
difficulty, never discouraged by wrong, never changed. b y 
detraction, never impaired by a brilliant prosperity, never 
lessened by the misrepresentations of a censorious world, 
always too active to be studious, and too idle to be wise. 

Mr. Bennett, however, can have no higher panegyric than 



104 JNFAMY OF PARTY WARFARE. 

that which his own consistent adherence to the democratic 
institutions of this country will bestow upon him ; and the best 
friend may adorn his character most brilliantly by arraying the 
details of that history, which, eyen in its most eccentric part, 
conceals a deep and significant meaning — oftener to be felt 
than to be analysed, oftener to be noticed than to be de- 
scribed. 

Among the articles which Mr. Bennett wrote in favor of 
Andrew Jackson's elevation to the Presidency, some of the hu- 
morous ones contain that peculiar species of wit which, while it 
delights, contains within itself an idea like a sermon, and a hint 
like an essay. It will not be forgotten, too, that in the rancor 
of political strife, the ancient style of slander in which partisans 
indulged knew neither bounds nor decency, even after the 
Presidential election, and that when Mrs. Jackson died, at the 
commencement of the year, just previous to her husband's de- 
parture for the seat of government, her epitaph was written in 
the Ne^ YorJS. American — then priding itself as the organ of 
literature, fashion, good society, and propriety — and in words 
sufficiently disgusting even in Latin : 

" Ilia vero Jelix, non tarn claritate vitce, quam opjJortunitate 
mortis." 

Neither sex nor the dead were sacred from the infamy of 
party warfare. Mr. Bennett said : 

" The impotency of the attacks which have been made upon 
General Jackson during the last three years by the Adams 
party, reminds us of an anecdote — ' Mother,' bawled out a 
a great two-fisted girl one day, ' my toe itches ! ' ' Well, 
scratch it, then.' ' I have ; but it wont stay scratched ! ' 

" ' Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay,' cries out two-fisted Uncle Toby, 
' Jac 1 ^ ^-on's a-coming — Jackson's a-coming ! ' ' Well, then,' 
say - tiy, ' anti-tariff him in the Journal' * I have ; but he 
t ~ a l stay anti-tariffed.' 'Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay,' bawls out 
Alderman Binns, * the old farmer's a-coming, a-coming.' ' Well, 
then,' says Harry, ' coffin-hand-bill him V 'I have, ' says 
Binns ; t but he wont stay coffin-hand-billed.' * Mr. Adams, 
Mr. Adams,' says John H. Pleasants, 'the hero's coming 



JOURNAL OP COMMERCE. 105 

actually coming.' - "Well, then,' says Mr. Adams, ' Burr him, 
and traitor liim.' - I have ; but he wont stay Burred or trai- 
tored.' ' Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay,' says Charles Hammond, ' Jack- 
son is coming.' - Well,' says Clay, - prove him an adulterer and 
a negro-trader.' ' I have,' says Charles ; - but he wont stay an 
adulterer or a negro-trader.' f Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay,' bawls out 
the full Adams slandering chorus, f we have called Jackson a 
murderer, an adulterer, a traitor, an ignoramus, a fool, a crook- 
back, a pretender, and so forth - but he wont stay any of these 
names.' - He wont,' says Mr. Clay, ■ why, then, I shan't stay 
at Washington, that's all ! ' " 

Mr. Bennett returned from Washington with increased activi- 
ty as a politician, and with a growing zeal as a journalist. He 
appears to have had many original views with respect to con- 
solidating the elements of strength in the democratic party. 
Among other suggestions which he threw out, one in particular 
took effect almost immediately. James Watson Webb, associ- 
ated with D. E. Tylee in the proprietorship, was the editor of 
the Courier, of which the Enquirer was the rival. The Journal 
of Commerce, having expended twenty -five thousand dollars of 
capital on its first year, was now coming into favor. It had 
been commenced in 1827, after the Life and Fire Insurance 
moralities had become public, and, as it were, to prove to the 
world, that there was some little virtue in commercial circles 
in the city. Being made a semi-religious journal, and not 
advertising theatres and other places of amusement, sanctioned 
by law, it was, in fact, the virtual advocate for the introduction 
of religion into business affairs, if not into politics. David 
Hale, who had been an auctioneer in Boston, and who wielded 
an expert pen, writing frequently with great effect and r^irit, 
was the principal editor ; though not a little fanatica*. Mr. 
Bennett, under all the circumstances surrounding the journals, 
suggested to Mr. Webb the importance of a unition of the 
Courier with the Enquirer; and accordingly, on the 25th 
of May the Courier and Enquirer, or Mo?-ning Courier and 
New York Enquirer was published. Mr. Bennett did not 
remain in the establishment* but continued to be active 

5* 



106 COURIER UNITION WITH ENQUIRER. 

in political affairs during the summer, which he passed in a 
vacation. 

The result of this fusion of the two journals was not agreea* - 
hie to the Tammany party, and Jesse Hoyt and others, seemed 
determined to make an effort, either to revive the Enquirer in 
some shape, or to establish a paper to be known as the State 
Enquirer, which never has existed, except in name. There 
were points of individual self-interest to he protected and 
advanced, by the contemplated journal, and Mr. Bennett evi- 
dently was encouraged to believe that he would have some 
share in the enterprise. It is certain, at least, that he was busy 
with certain New York politicians of the democratic school, in 
calculating the probabilities of success, for such an organ of the 
party. 

On the 4th of June Mr. Bennett left New York, and after 
arriving in Philadelphia, visited several of the leading demo- 
cratic politicians of that city. It is easy to conjecture who 
they were ; and, perhaps, they were the very ones, including 
Mr. Page, post-master there, whom he, in 1833, in decided 
language, ordered away from the premises of the Pennsylvanian, 
after he accepted the challenge to " show up the party." Here 
is a letter : — 

Philadelphia, June 7th, 1829. 
Dear Sir : When I first contemplated leaving New York, a few days 
ago, I promised to write you occasionally. Of course I consider the 
promise still good. 

I have been part of three days here, and have mixed a good deal with 
the leading Jackson men. They received the account of the union of 
the Enquirer with the Courier with utter astonishment. So they told 
me in express terms. 

They cannot conceive how the party in New York can repose confidence 
in Mr. Webb. Such is the sentiment here. 

I shall write you again from Washington. In the mean time, will you 
do all you can about the paper ? Spur up Butler, for he wants it. 
I am, dear sir, 

Yours truly, 

James Gordon Bennett. 
To Jesse Hott, Esq. 



WASHINGTON GLOBE. 107 

If it were possible to doubt the activity and energy of Mr. 
Bennett, not only in the eyes of the party, but in the estima- 
tion of its prominent directors, the proof is afforded by another 
letter, the interior view of which, exhibits a little more of the 
machinery, by which men hold power, when they have grati- 
fied their ambition by advancing to it. It is to be regretted, 
that eminent men should feel obliged to defend themselves, by 
placing the bulwarks of the Press around them. Yet it has 
been thus for many years. Indeed the Washington Globe was 
established in 1830, by President Jackson, to protect himself 
from the possible effects of the difficulty between himself and £/ 
Mr. Calhoun, and the fears he entertained of the government 
organ, the Washington Telegraph, edited by Duff Green. 
Francis P. Blair, afterwards associated with John C. Rives, was 
invited to establish and take charge of the Globe, by the Pre- 
sident; who had been gratified by seeing the vigor of Mr. 
Blair's pen in his cause, in the Frankfort, Kentucky, Argus, to 
which Mr. Blair was an occasional contributor. Probably, the 
readiness of Mr. Van Buren to favor the project in New York, 
proceeded from the natural desire to increase the political 
defences of the party, in the success of which he had a great 
personal as well as political interest. 

Washington, June 11th, 1829. 
Dear Sir : I arrived here the day before yesterday. I called on Mr. 
Van Buren and Mr. Ingham. They are both in favor of the new Demo- 
cratic paper, or the old one renovated. The feeling against the coalition, 
runs about as strong here as in New York. They know it would be 
corrected by the public men in New York. 

Major Moore, of Kentucky, is here. He brings accounts from the 
West, that some movements are making, of a curious nature, between 
Judge McLean (late Post-Master), and Mr. Clay. 

I have picked up a good deal of political information of various kinds, 
which I shall tell you in New York. 

I am going to call on the President to-day. 
I am, dear sir, 

Yours truly, 

James Gordon Bennett. 
To Jesse Hoyt, Esq. 



108 LETTER FROM ALBANY. 

It has been stated, already, that Mr. Bennett was not at this 
time connected with the Courier and Enquirer, but lest any 
unjust inference should be drawn from any of the letters found 
in this chapter, an extract from that journal, of February 9th, 
1830, is here introduced : " Mr. Bennet was the associate editor 
of the New York Enquirer, and has, except during a few weeks, 
last summer (1829), been an efficient laborer in the editorial 
department of the Morning Courier and Enquirer." 

Mr. Bennett did not rest easy with the information gained at 
Washington. He was now trying his feet on the shifting quick- 
sands of party tactics, not yet fully alive to the peculiar 
motives which operate on men who trade in political power ; 
and scarcely suspicious enough to doubt the sincerity of the 
honey-tongued partisans, whose counsels he sought. That he 
was uneasy in such a harness as he had consented to be placed 
in, is but too evident- — he was willing to pull for the party, the 
whole party, and nothing but the party. He only returned 
from Washington, to make his way towards the Springs, where 
the politicians gathered in summer, to devise modes for sustain- 
ing the political hive. While at Albany, he wrote a letter 
that is explanatory of his own position and full of suggestions. 

Albany, July 20th, 1829. 

Dear Sir : Since I arrived here, I have seen our friends in the Argus 
office and State Department — I mean Major Flagg, Mr. Wright, and Mr. 
Croswell. They are very friendly, but they say they have heard little of our 
local matters in New York, consequent on the sale of the Enquirer, with the 
exception of a passiDg remark from Mr. Cambreleng, as he passed through 
here a few weeks ago. They speak in the highest terms of Mr. Barnum, 
and assure me that he is every way capable for the position in New 
York. I am sorely puzzled to know what to do. 

Although our friends here think it a very favorable opportunity to 
start a newspaper, yet they think it a very hazardous experiment. They 
told me to-day that if the Party had the control of the political course of 
the Courier and Enquirer, it would be more eligible than a new paper. 
This, they think, could be done by placing an editor there under the 
auspices of the General Committee—an editor who would take care of 
the interests of tho Party and his friends'. They are afraid that the 



TO JESSE HOYT. lO'O 

political patronage is not sufficient for the support of a new paper, and they 
are of opinion that a journal which now enjoys all such patronage, as the 
Courier and Enquirer, ought to give up its columns to a political editor 
appointed by the General Committee. 

I wish you would get me out of these contradictory views and opinions' 
If you and Mr. Oakley, and Mr. Coddington, and a few other of out 
friends, could settle what course I shall take previous to my return — I do 
not care what it is — I shall adopt it. I know it will be a proper course. 

Which is the best and cheapest mode of expressing the views of the 
Party ? A new or old paper ? I shall be impatient for action when 
I return. Now is the time to sow the seed. The birds are beginning to 
sing. I cannot resist those influences ; and if you set yourself to work, 
I know you can accomplish the matter to a T. Do not call me a heretic 
and a trifling fellow, because I have spoken thus much of the C. and E. 
If it be heresy, then undoubtedly must headquarters be in a bad way. 

On the evening before I left New York, I received a letter informing 
me that the Herald intended to publish, on Saturday morning last, this — • 
"The last rallying point of the Republican Party has been surrendered 
by the purchase by the Courier of the services and prospects of the 
gentlemen who were to have published the N. Y. State Enquirer, &c, 
&c, &c." I went to the office of the Herald, and told them it was un- 
true, and forbid its publication. Snowden will tell you the whole story. 
It appears that Mumford went to the Herald and told them the story. 
You can see in this the finger of our friend Butler and Elisha Tibbetts, 
probably, who want to make as much mischief as possible. I hope old 
King Caucus will remember them. I shall write nothing for the C. and 
E. during my tour — that you requested me to do. Tell Mr Oakley that 
my next letter I shall write to him, probably, from the Springs. 

I am, dear sir, 
Yours truly, 

James G. Bennett. 

To Jesse Hoyt Esq. 

P. S. If you have anything to say particularly to me in the course of 
the week, write to Buffalo to me. 

P. S. Mr. Croswell thinks that under the present circumstances, the 
Republican General Committee can make their own terms with Webb 
and Tylee. Would not a private meeting of our friends on the subject 
be a good first step ? 

The Herald alluded to in the above letter, was a journal 
of that period that had sprung from the Advocate, a paper that 
grew out of the Columbian. 



110 NEWSPAPERS IN NEW YORK. 

President Jackson's attack on the United States Bank, as 
an engine possessing too much power over the States, political 
proscription or removals from office, became the chief themes 
for newspaper discussion in this year. The charter of the 
Bank was to expire in 1836, and the question of renewing it 
was one which began to excite much feeling in every part of 
the country. 

In all parts of the civilized world, the end of the war between 
Russia and Turkey, which was terminated by a treaty, and 
the payment by Turkey of five millions of dollars, was greeted 
with pleasure. The Russians agreed to retire by degrees from 
Adrianople, and beyond the Balkan, the Danube, and the 
Pruth ; but the war was only suspended, and not terminated* 
as the world knows by the recent unholy, but in a philosophical 
view, inevitable aggressions by Eussia on the territory of the 
Sultan. 

In 1829 there were two hundred and eleven newspapers 
published in the state of New York. Thirty-two of them were 
Anti-masonic. Forty-seven papers were published in the city. 
Of these, eleven were issued daily, ten semi- weekly, twenty- 
three weekly, two semi-monthly, and one monthly. In 1855, 
there are upwards of one hundred and fifty newspapers, be- 
sides sixty or seventy periodicals, issued in the city alone. 

Mr. Bennett, in the Autumn, became an associate editor of 
the Courier and Enquirer, and very soon it attracted much at- 
tention, and among the democracy obtained a fame not eclipsed 
by any other journal. It had been conducted with considerable 
ability ; but it now commanded a rapidly increasing patronage 
from the mercantile classes, introducing gradually, for the pur- 
pose of obtaining news, such improvements as were considered 
truly wonderful at that time, and worthy of encouragement. It 
is quite evident that Mr. Bennett's mind arranged much of the 
machinery which was connected with the general management 
of the establishment, while the proof of his editorial activity 
and value will come in incidentally and necessarily, as his 
course is traced, not only as a leading spirit in party tactics, 
but as a public journalist. 



AMERICAN COPYRIGHT LAW. Ill 

He was called the " foreigner " by Ms political enemies. In 
November lie tbus replied to this objection to the value of his 
opinions and arguments. 

" The recreant conduct of the New York Daily Advertiser 
to the commercial interests of the city, cannot be palliated by 
a weak and malevolent attack upon the personal and business 
concerns of the Courier and Enquirer. The fling at foreigners 
deserves only to be laughed at. It is, however, perfectly in 
keeping with the character which the editor of the Daily Ad- 
vertiser has sustained in the politics of the country. Yet it is, 
on his part, not the less an insult thrown in the teeth of the 
many thousand respectable merchants and mechanics of this 
city, who, like the patriot pilgrims of New England, had the 
firmness and nerve in the face of all prejudices of birth and 
education to select their own country for the full enjoyment of 
civil, political, and religious freedom. An aristocrat is always 
the first to seize upon such contemptible weapons. It is justly 
indicative of the absence of sound argument, just feelings, or 
liberal principles." 

In November, an article privately sent from Amos Kendall, 
against the Bank of the United States, appeared in the Courier 
and Enquirer. It was sent to Mr. Noah, who conferred with 
Mr. Bennett upon it, and the former then inserted it with ad- 
ditions. 

As to matters of smaller interest, the year 1829 was not de- 
ficient. American dramatic literature was made at least noto- 
rious by the first production of " Metamora," in December. 
It was written by John Augustus Stone, an actor of no little 
merit, who wrote several better plays, among which was the 
" Ancient Briton," performed a few times by Mr. Forrest. 
There has been little public encouragement bestowed at any 
period on American dramatic literature, a very inadequate 
remuneration for good works, and much indifference on the 
part of the Press. The American copyright law is a disgrace 
to the country, and affords no protection whatsoever to the 
proprietor or writer of a drama, so that every American printed 
play becomes common plunder for the theatres. When the 



112 WOOD-CUT ADVERTISEMENTS. 

copyright bill was framed, an American dramatist was not 
dreamed of. 

The Press at the close of this year determined no longer to 
print wood-cuts in connexion with advertisements. An associa- 
tion was formed to carry out this reform and to regulate other 
n itters. It was decided, also, to keep a black list to contain 
th names of those who incurred debts at any newspaper 
establishment without making settlements ! The Press then 
was weak, indeed. 



A SECESSION FROM JOURNALISM. 113 



CHAPTER VIII. 



There was a curious mixed spirit of reform, zealotry, fana- 
ticism, and absurdity abroad in 1830. It grew up under the 
fosterage of a portion of the Press. As early as 1827, a clergy- 
man of Philadelphia, in the Seventh Presbyterian Church, 
said, " I propose a Christian party in politics. The Presbyte- 
rians alone can bring half a million of electors into the field." 
Mr. Wisner, a clergyman of Ithaca, New York, preached to 
advocate the rights of the church " even to blood." In personal 
abuse, there was no end to examples furnished by the Press, 
and by men in high official stations. A candidate for the con- 
tested seat of the Tenn^- lm, issued a card against 
a gentleman, afterwaru.0 -.e United States, con- 
taining these words : "I pronounce James K. Polk, of Ten- 
nessee, to be a coward, a puppy, a liar, and a scoundrel gene- 
rally." A quarrel between Mr. Webb and Duff Green took 
place in May. The latter drew a pistol in self-defence, and 
the former stood at bay, using only his tongue. This was 
after a challenge had been sent to the latter, who assailed with 
blows the bearer of it. The whole affair seems truly laugha- 
ble now, as such chivalry is out of fashion. One editor, a 
gentleman of distinction in Columbia, South Carolina, seems 
to have been disgusted with such acts. He sold his journal, 
and seceded from Journalism, saying, "As a reason for not 
entering into the violence of party spirit which now exists, I 
must express my entire disapprobation of the present state of 
the American Press, and my firm persuasion that unless a 
change be effected, it is destined, at no distant period, so totally 
to overthrow our splendid political fabric, that not one stone 



114 SUNDAY MAIL QUESTION. 

shall be left upon another." In the Rhode Island legislature, 
an editor who was taking notes, and not a member of the 
assembly, on being assailed in a speech by one of the legisla- 
tors, was permitted to reply. This is, probably, the only case 
of the kind on record. In March, the Albany Evening Journal 
was established by Thurlow Weed, to sustain the ridiculous 
Anti-Masonic party. The other journals devoted to that poli- 
tical crusade, by the same journalist, were not adequate to the 
growing, yet fantastical cause, in which he engaged — he who 
was charged by his opponents with a most singular act. They 
said, when he "found the body of Tim Monroe in Lake 
Ontario, he painted his whiskers, shaved his head, drew an old 
tooth, and said the body was a good enough Morgan until after 
the election." Thus originated the phrase of " a good enough 
Morgan," used now in every political campaign. The carrying 
of the United States mails on Sunday, was an old theme of 
general interest and discussion. Some persons were disposed 
to suspend, not only the right to travel on the Sabbath, but 
also to stop for one day in the week, all inland communication. 
In the month of July, a year later, the lady of Jasher 0. Fos- 
ter was seized and incarcerated till sun-set, by Eliphalet 
Huntington, a deacon of Lebanon, Connecticut. She was 
travelling on Sunday, and was only a few miles from her 
home ; she had been detained by a storm in coming from New 
York. Mrs. Foster was harshly treated ; and the newspapers 
made the whole transaction a subject for many articles on tole- 
ration and Christian charity, the result of which has been 
beneficial to the community at large. 

In the mixed state and the heat of opinions, and in the 
deplorable condition of political and public manners, thousands 
of facts might be brought forward to show the dawn of a hope 
for better days — days not deformed by cant and cunning, by 
passion and lack of judgment, but enlightened by the minds of 
men who have outlived the ignorance which belongs to the 
tyranny of opinion. 

Mr. Bennett was at Washington in the latter months of 
] 829, and remained there a few weeks after the opening of the 



ANTI-AUCTION CRUSADE. 115 

new year. He devoted himself to the journal with great zeal j 
and in tracing his course, his pen is found to have been ever 
ready to anticipate coming events. There was much excite- 
ment in the public mind on auctions. A crusade was com- 
menced against them, and attempts were made to restrain them 
by federal legislation. Many persons advocated total absti- 
nence. The persons who were on the anti-auction side, were as 
fanatical as the anti-masons, who were then feeling all the 
indignation possible for the alleged abduction or death of 
Morgan. The blending of sectarianism with questions of pub- 
lic policy, led to undue excitement, not only in the country 
towns, but on the sea-board. 

In so strange a condition of society, something was required 
to break up the madness that possessed men. Mr. Bennett 
brought his ridicule and spirit of merriment into the field, and 
persevered till the morbid action was turned into a healthful 
one. He wrote many ingenious, amusing, and bold articles, 
which gave tone and character to the Courier and Enquirer. 
Common sense pervaded these, and the future showed that 
his observation of men and things had not been in vain. 

Many persons will remember the spring of 1830, when the 
policy of President Jackson's cabinet began to show itself. Even 
as early as this, the President was thought of for a second term 
of office, and consequently there was no little political activity. 
Hence several quarrels between journalists, and the difficulty 
between the President and Vice-President Calhoun. Many of 
the appointments were not confirmed by the Senate. Two 
Southern editors were confirmed, but Isaac Hill, editor of the 
New Hampshire Patriot, and M. M. Noah were rejected. Mr. 
Bennett wrote on this unfair conduct with a caustic pen ; and, 
indeed, the question began to be agitated, " are editors eligible 
to office ? " It was at this time that John Randolph, at a pub- 
lic dinner at Norfolk, thus gave his opinion of a deceased 
journalist, by a toast : — " the memory of Merriwether Jones, 
editor of the Examiner, in the reign of terror — the shield and 
spear of the old Republican party in the darkest day that I 
ever saw." Isaac Hill was sent to Congress by the people of 



11G ULTRA1SM OF THE AGE. 

his district, incensed at his rejection by the Senate ; and a toast 
was given at a democratic festival thus : " Isaac Hill of New 
Hampshire and C. Gr. Dewitt of New York .-Editors and mem- 
bers of Congress. The people do not proscribe a man for his 
occupation. Let the Senate profit by the example." Since 
that time, journalists often have prospered in the political ranks 
with the people, but the Senate has interfered, when any appoint- 
ment of an important kind has been proposed to dignify the 
profession of Journalism. Presidents and Senates have been 
made something, from very meagre talents, by the Press ; but 
there has been very little reciprocity of feeling. The dogs in 
office usually growl at their master. 

The Agrarian party, established in 1829, became an object 
of solicitude to politicians in 1830. Mr. Bennett ridiculed both 
the philosophy and the remedies for social evils introduced by 
this faction. He traced their steps, which will be referred to 
again in chapter twenty-fifth, with no ordinary care from the 
time that Frances Wright paid her second visit to this country, 
while Mr. Bennett was chiefly at the helm of the Enquirer. It 
is not too much to say that Mr. Bennett gave the cues to the 
mechanics of New York, by which they not only avoided ex- 
tremes, but succeeded in bringing about certain laws favorable 
to their class. The Friend of Equal Rights was published in 
1830, and this afforded opportunities to examine the favorite 
subjects broached by the radical party or faction, while the 
lectures of Frances Wright, renewed in January, 1829, fur 
nished principles for dissection. 

Mr. Bennett never was in favor of ultraism on any subject. 
Among the passages gleaned from his editorials is the an- 
nexed : 

" The ultraism of the age is the great enemy of all reforms 
The intelligent and the genuine reformer proceeds slowly, 
cautiously, temperately. Prejudices are not best overcome by 
violence. The popular mind is not to be taken by storm. 
Many reforms may be clearly discerned as necessary, and the 
means of their attainment be fully perceived by those who are 
in advance of their fellows. But it is to be recollected, that 



EMBARKING FOR NAHANT. 117 

the enlightening and convincing of the great mass of mankind 
is the work of time. The man who labors patiently and pru- 
dently for the advancement of his race, by the exposure of 
error and the spread of truth on all subjects connected with 
philosophy, religion, civilisation, and laws, is the true reformer. 
But he who goes wildly, rashly, intemperately, to work, is like 
the fool in the Proverbs, who casts around him arrows, fire- 
brands, and death, and says, ' Am I not in sport 1 ' " 

In the Spring of the year, the murder of Captain White, of 
Salem, Massachusetts, by the Crowninshields, excited an 
intense interest in every part of the country. The brothers, 
with other parties, were engaged in an atrocious plot, which 
was unravelled after a slow and laborious series of legal inves- 
tigations. In July preparations were made for the trial, when 
Daniel Webster distinguished himself by a powerful argument, 
and the Courier and Enquirer announced that the associate 
editor would proceed to Salem, and furnish letters and reports 
upon the subject, and that he would extend his journey also to 
other localities in New England. 

Accordingly Mr. Bennett, on the 17th of July, embarked in 
the steamboat for Boston, where he arrived on the 19th of 
July, and commenced his correspondence. On the 21st of the 
month he wrote his first letter from Salem ; but as the legal 
proceedings there were delayed, he visited Nahant, the roman- 
tic promontory of Massachusetts Bay, which he described with 
his accustomed sententiousness. The picture given of the mode 
in which the Bostonians used to embark for their favorite sum- 
mer retreat will be recognised for its stern fidelity to the truth : 

" The quiet exclusives of Boston crawl down to a place 
called Tileston's wharf, and drop in one after another, some 
with a book, others with a work-basket — this man with a re- 
view, another with a sermon, and the rest with their fine, 
chubby boys and girls, who, in quiet placidity, are. little men 
and little women. There is no stir, no fuss, no uproar, no riot, 
as at a New York embarkation for Albany and the Springs. 
The boat then starts off at a very easy jog-trot over the laugh- 
ing waters." 



118 FRANKLIN PIERCE. 

On the 27th of July he was again at Salem. On the 30th 
he described the East India Museum and its curiosities, and made 
a very hnmorous account of a magical object of virtu, a fortune- 
telling ball, which he looked into while there. He jocosely 
pretended to have seen in it the fate and future of several poli- 
ticians in New York. With the inhabitants of Salem he ap- 
pears to have been much pleased. A single extract will suf- 
fice : 

" The mariners of Salem have long been celebrated for their 
adventurous habits. The tea trade at one period was most 
successfully carried on by the Salem shipping and Salem 
navigators. As a circumstance resulting from this trait in the 
character of its inhabitants, few old gentlemen of any eminence 
in wealth are to be found here who bear not the title of cap- 
tain. This is not a barren militia title, indicated by epaulettes 
and so forth. It is a marine honor, and most heroically has it 
sometimes been earned, not by the heroism of conquering 
nations, destroying the human race, and sating the wild am- 
bition of little minds — but that heroism which battles the 
elements in the pursuit of independence — which braves the 
mountain waves for the glory of a nation's commerce — which 
penetrates every ocean in the honorable calling of a merchant 
and navigator." 

On the 30th of July Mr. Bennett was at Concord, New 
Hampshire, and wrote an account of the democracy of that 
state. It was said by political antagonists afterwards that he 
went there to obtain some political documents from Isaac Hill. 
This charge was unfounded. Had it been true, it would have 
been of little importance. During his visit he examined the 
principal public buildings, and it is quite possible that he may 
have had the pleasure of honoring with a few words Franklin 
Pierce, then a lawyer there ; for he himself was the lion then 
— an editor of the leading democratic journal of the Empire 
State ! If they did speak together, little did the Concord 
lawyer think he was in the presence of the man who would 
most assist him to the highest seat of honor in the gift of 
a great people. 



TRIAL AT SALEM. 119 

On the 3d of August, the great trial at Salem commenced. 
Mr. Bennett was at his post. Perez Morton was the Attorney 
General. This gentleman undertook to give directions to the 
Press, with respect to the publication of reports. Mr. Bennett 
said of him and of his regulations : 

" He knows more of the technicalities of the law, than he 
does of the tactics of a well conducted Press. It is an old, 
worm-eaten, Gothic dogma of the Courts, to consider the pub- 
licity given to every event by the Press, as destructive to the 
interests of law and justice. This superstition arose towards 
the close of the Middle Ages, and was in its full vigor during 
the last century, in Europe, when the contest arose, not only 
between the Press and the Princes of the world, but also, 
between the Press and the craft of the law. Is it possible that 
the publication of facts, or even rumors, can have any tendency 
to defeat the general operations of justice % If this were true, 
the more utterly ignorant a man is, the fitter he is to sit as a 
juror. v 

" There seems to be a set of people in this world, who, 
whether they are in the court, at the bar, or in the Senate, 
have a particular penchant for degrading and be-littleing the 
Press ; and who embrace every opportunity to cast aspersions 
upon its character and usefulness. The honesty, the purity, 
the integrity of legal practice and decisions throughout this 
country, are more indebted to the American Press, than to the 
whole tribe of lawyers and judges, who issue their decrees. 
The Press is the living Jury of the Nation." 

Before the reader concludes this volume, he will find that 
Mr. Bennett has acted in the full faith of the above opinion, 
which is concentrated in a single line that ought never to be 
forgotten. 

The judges at Salem waived jurisdiction over the Press out 
of the State for one day, and then interdicted Mr. Bennett, as 
well as every other gentleman who was taking notes for 
immediate publication. On the 10th of July, Mr. Bennett 
wrote : 

" This morning the court carried their threats against the 



120 COURTS AND THE PRESS. 

Press a little further than before. They probably repented of 
the condescension they had shown yesterday. They this 
morning gave notice that, if any person was detected (Shade of 
Franklin ! what a word to make use of relative to reports of a 
public trial !) in taking notes of the evidence in the Court 
House, for the purpose of sending them out of the State for 
publication, previous to the conclusion of the trial, he would 
be proceeded against by the court as for a contempt. 

" For the edification of our Massachusetts neighbors, it will 
not be amiss to state, that in New York State they order these 
things better. By a reference to the Revised Statutes of New 
York, part third, chapter third, regarding the general provisions 
relative to Courts, it is expressly enacted that the publication 
of testimony, while a trial is still pending, shall not be 
restrained." 

Mr. Bennett concluded his task at Salem, when he departed 
on a visit to the factories of Lowell, where he gleaned informa- 
tion and opinions connected with the tariff question, and the 
progress of manufactures in cotton. His examination of the 
mills was minute, and he described them with much care ; pay- 
ing a compliment to Kirk Boott, one of the few American gen- 
tlemen who have distinguished themselves by respecting and 
honoring literary excellence. He could have visited Cam- 
bridge too, where a class of uncommon talent was graduated. 
Charles Sumner, Wendall Phillips, William H. Simmons, the 
elocutionist, Oliver Wendall Holmes, and other men of distinc- 
tion, then took their honors. 

On Mr. Bennett's return to New York, he wrote the history 
of the Crowninshields, and many other articles for which he 
had gathered facts during his absence. The flight of Charles X. 
from France, and the scenes of the 28th, 29th, and 30th of 
July, together with the death of George IV., the month before, 
June 26th ; suggested many reflections on the probable future 
of Europe. Mr. Bennett wrote upon these subjects, while he 
also abated no jot of activity in the cause of democracy. 

There was one subject that Mr. Bennett delighted more in 
playing with, than any other. That was Anti-masonry ; and 



ANTI-MASONRY. 121 

when Mrs. Morgan married George W. Harris at the end of 
November, lie wrote a very complimentary, but very humor- 
ous epithalamium, in prose ; which was designed to consign 
Anti-masonry to well merited oblivion. 

The political fanaticism which was connected with the Anti- 
masonic cause endured for several years, and gathered strength 
as it advanced, till finally it perished, giving rise to a class of 
political reformers, who, in Western New York, have embraced 
almost every kind of radical theory. They have not added 
much to their political power, however, by this system. Liable 
to run into extremes, they have made many blunders, which 
will always be remembered when they appeal to the people to 
aid their enterprises. 

The history of Anti-masonry is curious enough ; and did 
space permit, an outline of its progress could be presented that 
would prove valuable to politicians. As references to it are 
made necessarily in other chapters, little can here be said. 
The height of folly to which its devotees went, is a proof that 
political, like religious fanaticism, may possess a people so 
completely as to absorb every sentiment and opinion of libe- 
rality and justice. 

The condition in which Anti-masonry stood, prior to the 
period of Andrew Jackson's re-election, was peculiar. It had 
grown from a small germ to a great body, and those who 
assisted in its growth were as wild in their zeal and enthusiasm 
as the followers of Peter the Hermit. Conventions were called 
in which free-masons, and even those who had taken the high- 
est degrees, publicly seceded from the order ; and masons who 
were not willing to imitate them, were proscribed and denounced 
as the enemies of man and of their country. 

Such a spirit excited no ordinary action upon the part of 
those opposed to such absurdity. The Press was marked by 
an uncommonly ferocious spirit. The wire-workers among the 
Anti-masons were visited with the severest inflictions of satire 
and ridicule, which were justified by those who used them on 
the ground that so great an evil needed decided treatment. 

The Press, however, did not confine itself to facts. When 

6 



122 POLITICAL FANATICISM. 

the body of Komfoe, was found, the protracted inquests kept the 
body from the widow, who desired to bury it, for several weeks ; 
and this was done to make a good effect on the elections. The 
Anti-masons desired to prove that Morgan was dead, and Mon- 
roe's body was that upon which this evidence was to be sup- 
ported. Hence the allusion in a former part of this chapter. 
It was not enough to say this, and to add that the dead body 
had been arranged to appear like Morgan's, but Mr. Weed was 
libelled grossly by a brother Journalist, who afterwards made 
reparation for the injustice, by a public apology. 

In the Conventions of the Anti-masons the political ferment 
was intense. Pliny Merrick, of Worcester, Massachusetts, a 
Royal Arch Mason, seceded in Faneuil Hall, Boston, and made 
a speech that it seemed scarcely possible could be wrought out 
of such materials as were its ground-work. Other speakers 
assailed their neighbors as masons, and denounced them ; and 
families were totally severed by the spirit of fanaticism which 
was abroad — fathers abandoning sons, and sons their fathers, in 
the political quarrels which arose from the agitation of the 
subject. Yet all this was political trickery, generated in the 
hot-bed of politics at Albany, where the leaders could not but 
laugh at the simple credulity of the people at large, but at that 
of the gravest men in the country. Never were demagogues, 
except perhaps during the Revolution of Robespierre, more 
inspirited by a mere idea, wholly baseless either in their own 
belief or in fact. They had started it as a theme for agitation, 
and, as if bound to a wheel that they had set revolving, they 
kept in motion with it till they were made dizzy. When it fell 
to pieces, they fell with it, many of them never to rise again, or 
rising only to cling to some other equally absurd idea. 

During the whole of this year Mr. Bennett's pen was in con- 
stant exercise in behalf of the cause in which he was engaged, 
Whenever any article appeared that attracted much attention, 
and was highly praised, it was very difficult to learn, except 
from internal evidence, that it was his composition. If there 
was anything published that did not give satisfaction, there 
was no great trouble or remorse, in attributing it to his 



A SCAPE-GOAT. 123 

facile pen. In this way Mr. Bennett was made a scape-goat 
for more blunders than one, and he had no remedy, for he was 
employed at a salary of a few dollars a week — not so much as 
an ordinary mechanic would obtain in any respectable work- 
shop — and was obliged to bear the indignities to which patient 
merit is too often subjected. Yet he endured with fortitude the 
misery incidental to a service so full of injustice, but was 
fortunate enough to have disinterested testimony to the fact, 
that, in after years, the injury to him might be thrown off, 
when the deeds of his life should be winnowed and the chaff 
separated from the wheat. 

At the close of the year, Mr. Bennett again was at Washing- 
ton, and, as usual, seems to have been often in the library, for 
he writes that it was much improved in its arrangement, and 
that his labors were facilitated by the improved attention which 
had been bestowed upon the catalogue. 

This chapter might be much expended, by naming many 
other subjects to which Mr. Bennett's mind was directed during 
the year ; such as his essays in behalf of young Charles Kean, 
on his first engagement ; his encouragement of A. A. Addams, 
and of Signorina Da Ponte, and others in the dramatic art ; 
and his criticisms on politicians, poets, painters, and the like. 
Enough has been said, however, to prove that he was an honor- 
able laborer in the cause of Journalism. 



124 POLITICAL WAGERS. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Political betting, or betting upon elections, has been in- 
dulged in very extensively for many years ; and a son of one 
- of the Presidents of the United States, has been shown to have 
had extensive operations in this foolish and degrading practice, 
so common as to be vulgar, and so popular as to be dangerous. 
For many years it was not uncommon for journals publicly to 
propose and accept bets on the issues of a political campaign. 
In this way politicians sometimes sold principles and every 
consideration of justice and propriety, to save their money, or 
to add to it, or in the hope to strengthen the prospects of their 
cause. The subject is an important one, and public sentiment 
should put an end to a habit so hostile to free institutions. The 
Press has long been free from publicly proposing wagers of any 
kind ; and it is to be hoped by every admirer of his country's 
good name, that an early reform on this subject may be com- 
menced and thoroughly established. Political betting might be 
abridged by making it a penal offence — the evils which arise 
from the custom being sufficiently abundant and severe to 
justify such a recourse to law. In a representative govern- 
ment, the purity of the elections should be guarded and se- 
cured at any cost, and citizens should be taught to value the 
inestimable trust and privilege embraced in the elective fran- 
chise. Public sentiment ought, indeed, to make such a law 
unnecessary, but to establish the former, the latter may be 
requisite as a forerunner. 

Mr. Bennett remained at Washington till about the middle 
of January, 1831. While there he evidently directed by 



RE-CHARTER OF THE U. S. BANK. 125 

private letters and editorials the course of the journal. His 
footsteps are easily to be traced from day to day. 

On his return to New York, he commenced the celebrated 
articles on banks in general, and on the United States Bank 
in particular ; and undoubtedly fortified the government to 
persevere against the Bank, in the course which was the grand 
feature of the Jackson administration. 

Few journalists were able in those days to grapple with a 
subject so gigantic, or even willing to incur the displeasure of 
the commercial community, by being opposed to a time-honored 
establishment. Mr. Bennett did not shrink from the task. At 
Washington he had obtained the information upon which he 
predicated his action ; and he commenced his labors with a zeal 
which brought the results of his study before Congress, where 
Mr. Webb, his associate, acknowledged in his evidence, that Mr. 
Bennett alone was the author of the articles which had excited 
the public mind. 

On the 5th of February, the Courier and Enquirer was 
furnished with a leading article by Mr. Bennett, which will be 
referred to again in the ensuing chapter. 

In commencing his remarks, he adverted to the fact that the 
banking system of the State of New York had just been settled 
on principles which promised to be useful. He then called 
upon the legislature to examine the whole subject connected 
with the re-charter of the United States Bank, and urged 
attention to it on broad national grounds, that the " suggestions 
of our venerable President " might be followed out. 

" Independent of the interests of our merchants, manufac- 
turers, owners of stock, and all bankers, there are several 
cogent reasons of a moral and political nature, which have only 
been brought to light during the last few months. If this 
great monied institution, spreading its branches throughout the 
country, simply confined itself to its brokerage business, it still 
deserves to be most rigorously examined, before its privileges 
should be renewed. But when the great influence of such a 
corporation is turned to political uses, or is exercised to destroy 
one party, and build up another, or is directed to control the 



126 OLD FEDERAL PARTY. 

government and constitution of the country, then it is full time 
for the people and the State to look carefully into the whole 
matter and satisfy themselves that all is right. 

" The recent political movements among the friends of Henry 
Clay, in New York, in Utica, and in Buffalo, and elsewhere, 
are distinguished for several peculiar features, unprecedented 
in the political history of this State — unparalleled in that of 
the whole Union from the Revolution to the present day. In 
Buffalo, the individuals who figured largely at the public meet- 
ing, were the president and directors of the United States 
Branch Bank. In their address and resolutions, it is very 
evident that the countenance of that institution, under its pre- 
sent almost despotic reign, was nearest their hearts. An 
attempt, too, is made to hide the real object, under the mask 
of high taxation, Indians, removal from office, and so forth ; but 
it is too thin to escape detection. 

" The movement in Utica, where a branch is located, was of 
the same character, and in this city the chairman and others 
of the meeting at Masonic Hall were intimately connected with 
the same monied interest. The moment it was known that the 
Bank had been alluded to in the President's Message, their 
movements were indecently hurried forward. The bulk of 
these meetings, and their leaders and instigators, are men well 
known for their federal sentiments and predilections — their 
broad construction of the Constitution, and their hostility to 
the independence and sovereignty of the States. It is, in 
fact, the old federal party re-organized, under the direction of a 
monied institution, defying the power of this great State ; and 
aiming at controlling our interests and doctrines. The prin- 
ciples avowed in their addresses are hostile to democracy, and 
the organization which is attempted, under the name of 
" National Republicans," is intended not only to overthrow the 
Republican Party, but even to crush the Anti-masonic party. 
The corrupt system of taxing the people for the purposes of 
distribution through the States, is one of the main points of 
the doctrine insisted upon ; and the United States Bank, it must 
be acknowledged, has a deep interest in this system of high 



IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO. 127 

taxation. All the money of the government pouring through 
its coffers, fast lines the hands and the pockets of those it 
touches in its onward course. 

" Such are the facts of the recent re-organization of the 
federal party in Utica, New York, and Buffalo, and throughout 
the State. They are facts of the deepest importance — of the 
greatest magnitude to the free people of New York — to the 
whole array of this yet disenthralled republic. Let the mind, 
untinctured by prejudice — unawed by power — unbought by 
favors, look at the startling fact with steady attention, and. 
unblanched gaze. What have we ? An organized corps of 
presidents, cashiers, directors, clerks, tellers, lenders and bor- 
rowers, spread throughout the United States — moving simul 
taneously upon every given point — lending out money for hire, 
and distributing opinions for action — furnishing capital and 
thoughts at one and the same moment — buying men and votes 
as cattle in the market — giving a tone to public opinion — mak- 
ing and unmaking Presidents at will — controlling the free will 
of the people, and corrupting their servants — circulating simul- 
taneously political theories, destructive of the constitution, 
and paper money injurious to every State Bank — curtailing 
and expanding at will, discounts and exchanges — withering by 
a subtle poison, the liberty of the Press— and, in fact, erecting 
within the States of the Union, a new general government — 
an Imperium in imperw, unknown to the Constitution, defying 
its power, laughing at its restrictions, scorning its principles, 
and pointing to its golden vaults, as the weapon that will exe- 
cute its behests, whenever it shall be necessary to carry them 
into action. 

*■' We repeat, therefore, as the Bank question of this State is 
finally settled by the passage of the city bank charters through 
the Senate, would it not be well for the legislature of New 
York to take the lead in following out the suggestion of 
the President, by commencing a rigid examination of the prin- 
ciples and policy involved in the United States Bank ?" 

Other articles on kindred themes followed this, and on the 
24th of March, Mr. Bennett wrote an article on the Safety 



128 DEATH OF BOLIVAR. 

Fund system of banking ; from which a few extracts may he 
taken : 

" During a period of four or five years, the State of New 
York has been thrown into periodical spasms in relation to her 
banking system and money matters. Every principle has 
been discussed, every plan devised, every view taken that 
could be, of such an important subject. The most profound 
intellect, the acutest minds, the greatest experience in business, 
have contributed to give interest, animation, and piquancy to 
these discussions. The legislature at length fixed upon the 
Safety Fund system of banking, believing that to combine 
within itself a more ample security to the public against failure 
than ever had been hitherto discovered, and possessing in itself 
the principle of self-protection, so far as regarded the stock- 
holders and capitalists of the bank. 

" From the anticipated operation of the law, it is now con- 
fidently predicted that the city banks will possess their own 
proper influence over the currency, and that they can, at any 
period, make the whole circulation of the Safety Fund banks* 
in any section of the State, equal to specie in the city. From 
the same operation by which they improve the circulating 
medium of the country banks, will very naturally result an 
extended circulation of city notes, and a more limited one of 
the ordinary, unbaptized, uncivilized notes of the foreign and 
pagan banks of other States. 

" The public, therefore, have every reason to be gratified 
with the prospect ahead. It is the interest of the city banks 
to produce a perfect uniformity in the value of the whole cir- 
culation of the State. The system itself puts into their hands 
every facility to produce such a result. Will they do so 1 
Will they avail themselves of the advantages of their con- 
nexion ? " 

On the 14th of February Mr. Bennett wrote an article on 
the death of Bolivar, in which he prophesied all that has taken 
place in the South American States since that period. He had 
often written of Bolivar's deeds, had watched his course, and 
was fully capable of giving a just estimate of that great man's 



COURIER AND ENQUIRER. 129 

character. As no other reference has been made to the fact, it 
should be stated that for years in the Advocate and in the En- 
quirer Mr. Bennett devoted much labor to prepare correct 
statements of the politics and the condition and prospects of 
distant countries. It was thus that he familiarized his mind 
with subjects which have been of the utmost importance to him 
in recent years, when he has been called upon to draw illustra- 
tions from history, or to deduce conclusions from certain histo- 
rical premises. It is such knowledge that confirms the intuitive 
faculties, and renders a man safe in his judgment of an unde- 
veloped circumstance. 

On the 4th of April the interest of Daniel E. Tylee in the 
Courier and Enquirer was sold, at least nominally, to M. M. 
Noah. The payment, amounting to twenty thousand dollars, 
was made thus — one-fourth in cash, and three-fourths in Texas 
bonds, which are still held by the real recipient, and are sup- 
posed to be worth upwards of a million of dollars. In a few 
days after the sale, the charge was made that Silas E. Bur- 
roughs was an owner of the establishment. On the 14th of 
May the journal denied that he was directly or indirectly con- 
cerned in it. This contradiction was made probably by Mr. 
Webb, who did not understand that Mr. Burroughs was really 
the owner, and had become so to defeat the course taken by 
Mr. Bennett, who was now placed in a very disagreeable 
position. He was poor, however, and i'; Avas of little conse- 
quence how much his feelings were to be shocked in such a 
case. It is certain that Mr. Bennett ceased to write against 
the United States Bank. A veto had been put upon him. 
More on this point will appear in the sequel. 

Mr. Webb at this time, too, was near being the victim to a 
strange proceeding. He was charged with receiving from a 
Quaker gentleman five hundred dollars, as a bribe on the Auc- 
tion question. Mr. Webb, accompanied by Mr. Bennett, on 
the 23d of April called upon this person, who asserted that he 
had not paid any sum to Mr. Webb, and signed a certificate to 
that effect. It appeared, however, that this agent of the Anti- 
auction committee, like many another agent intrusted with 

6* 



130 COURTESY BETWEEN JOURNALISTS. 

funds, desired to show the corruptibility of the Press and to 
enrich his own pocket. He lost five hundred dollars or less at 
cards in Washington, and being short of funds, obtained Mr. 
Webb's endorsement of his draft, which he made to appear as 
a voucher against Mr. Webb before his committee ! Some 
agents now-a-days have a simpler method of increasing their 
own gains. They charge the Press as the receiver of all 
the money they themselves intend to appropriate, and mys- 
teriously talk of the necessity of being very silent on the sub- 
ject. Unquestionably ! The silence is their only security 
from exposure. In the Quaker's case, Mr. Bennett, as the 
friend of Mr. Webb, published a certificate reciting the par- 
ticulars of the interview with " the gentleman who took off his 
Quaker coat when he played cards." Mr. Webb was exonerat- 
ed completely by it ; yet he published afterwards all the facts 
in the case, and exposed the attempt to charge losses at play 
as transactions between a public committee and an editor ! 

Mr. Bennett's opinions on the mode of conducting the Press 
appeared on the 9th of May, and these are but repetitions of his 
views, which were seldom displayed by others in practice, and 
which, consequently, eventually overwhelmed the hope for a 
reform he much desired. Refinement in a newspaper was 
intolerable — sleep to its readers, and death to its editors. He 
said : 

"A Philadelphia editor recently observed, that he could 
perceive a more respectful and courteous disposition manifested 
towards each other by the conductors of the Press, which is 
not only desirable and praiseworthy, but if made a general 
rule, and adopted with candor and sincerity, would tend, at no 
distant period, to place the American Press far beyond the 
reach of calumny or the clamors of the designing. At present 
we do not perceive this courtesy. 

" It may be admitted as a settled principle, that there are 
few, if any, of our citizens who would desire any essential or 
important change in our present form of government. The 
divisions of party, therefore, must be entirely local. Hence 
there is no existing cause for personal invective between 



HINTS TO EDITORS. 131 

the conductors of the Press in their support of men or mea- 
sures, 

" The art of printing, no one will dispute, is the crown and 
perfection of all arts, and surpasses all for the signal benefits and 
blessings conferred on the human race. Editors should, there- 
fore, have a right to feel proud of their avocation, and should 
sustain the meritorious of their colleagues in every laudable effort 
to attain the highest honors of the country ; for if united in sus- 
taining their legitimate rights, no power can resist them. 

" Those who publish a daily paper can best feel the em- 
barrassments which surround them. They must raise a large 
sum of money weekly, collect all the news, and spread what- 
ever may be of interest before the people. They are com- 
pelled to watch public men in or out of office ; to interpose 
advice on all public occasions, and qualify themselves to give 
this advice ; to labor during the day and part of the night in 
their vocation ; to protect the Constitution, the rights of the 
country, and the liberties of the people. These are arduous 
duties and high trusts, which cannot be faithfully or success- 
fully discharged by men of ordinary minds. Questions of 
peace or war, of finance, public improvement, public defence, 
the effect of treaties, the fitness of men for public stations, all 
come under the supervision of the Press. The concerns of a 
city, of a state, and of the Union, are daily presented to the 
view of the editor, and he is called upon by his readers to 
treat in his columns on all these perplexing and multifarious 
subjects. 

" Corresponding with these important labors should be his 
usefulness with the people and his rank in society. Is it so ? 
Certainly not. The want of union, of individual respect, and 
courtesy among editors of established character, injures presses. 
Differences about men and divisions of opinion on measures — 
all discussed with warmth, and advocated with zeal — have 
severed those bonds of good feeling and union, which should 
keep together in harmony and fellowship men of similar occu- 
pations, notwithstanding a difference of opinion. When we 
look at that class of editors throughout the Union, we see 



132 SUMMER PURSUITS. 

many among our opponents, as well as friends, who would do 
credit to any station in the country. Do we see any in the 
cabinet, or as foreign ministers, or in high and honorable 
stations abroad or at home 1 Not so ! And what prevents it 1 
Distrust of each other ! 

"An honorable ambition may be as properly cherished by a 
citizen at the head of a free Press, as by a citizen of any other 
occupation ; yet, not being true to ourselves, or jealous of our 
rights, or united to sustain them, we have the least possible 
chance of advancement. What can be more gratifying than to 
see an editor of a paper, a sober, discreet, and honorable man, 
realizing a fortune from his pursuits, and bringing up his sons 
to succeed him 1 We declare solemnly, that we take pleasure 
in seeing every editor prosperous, that is, every editor whom 
public opinion deems worthy of support ; and should political 
changes occur, we should feel pleased to see their advance to 
posts of honor or profit, though they may be our political op- 
ponents. Efforts are not wanting among designing men to 
widen the breach among editors — to push on excitement — to 
whet the instruments of passion and revenge, and by this 
disunion to prevent any concert of action which may affect 
their private interest. We are thus played off between battle- 
dore and shuttlecock — used by all, to be proscribed and thrown 
off by all." 

The rupture in President Jackson's cabinet took place in the 
early part of this year. The newspaper attacks on Mrs. Eaton, 
like those on Mrs. Crawford and Mrs. Jackson, originated the 
mischief which terminated in the arrangement of a new 
cabinet. 

Mr. Bennett, early in the summer, went up the valley of the 
Mohawk, from various points of which he dated his public 
letters. At Little Falls, he wrote a letter on the value of the 
water-power of that locality, as compared with that of Lowell. 
In the month of- September he visited Washington, and on the 
27th was at the National Anti-masonic Convention at Balti- 
more, where William Wirt was nominated by that body for the 
Presidency. On the 3d of October, he wrote a letter in which 



DEMOCRATIC FESTIVAL. 133 

lie placed in italics these words : " General Jackson will heat all 
the candidates that all the factions can bring into the fields 

The Free-Trade Convention met at Philadelphia, early in 
October. Mr. Bennett was present at it. He had proposed 
such a convention in the Enquirer as early as 1829, and the 
proposition was now met by a practical effort. In this meeting, 
the original anti-tariff resolutions of Daniel Webster, offered in 
Faneuil Hall, Boston, in 1820, were introduced, for the tariff 
was then a Southern measure, and found an advocate in Andrew 
Jackson, who was in favor of protection when he was a candi- 
date for the Presidency in 1824. Such are political principles ! 
Such, rather, is political ignorance ! 

On the 4th of July, 1831, James Monroe died, the third one 
of the ex-Presidents of the United States who have expired on 
the anniversary of the Independence of the States. 

In the autumn M. Chabert, the Fire King, exhibited himself 
in New York, entering red-hot ovens, swallowing boiling oil, 
putting his hands in melting lead, and doing other marvels of a 
similar character. Mr. Bennett wrote a very amusing description 
of this philosopher's experiments, which recorded the actual facts 
in a most agreeable and enlivening manner. It was one of his 
best efforts in that style of newspaper articles. 

In the selection of political subjects, the Tariff Convention, 
held in New York, afforded Mr. Bennett a field for very amus- 
ing rambles, in analyzing the political flowers of New England. 
A. H. Everett, a democrat, and the brother of Edward Everett, 
was a member of the Convention, the object of which was to 
popularize the tariff with the people. 

In November the democracy was triumphant in the elections, 
and the fact was distinguished by a festival. The wards 
formed committees for the banquet. Mr. Bennett was a member 
in the first ward, for he resided at 61 Broadway. From the 
original committees, other committees were chosen. Mr. Ben- 
nett was on one of these, with Dudley Selden, Egbert Ward, 
Prosper M. Wetmore, Jacob S. Bogert, and Jesse Hoyt. Pie 
was popular enough then with the politicians : he could be of 
use to them ! He attended the dinner, of course, where Mr 



134 THE EDITORIAL AGE. 

"Webb spoke out like a true democrat, and Mr. Bennett himself 
gave a toast that came with complete propriety from so active 
a leader : 

"The Democracy of New York — like the Tenth Legion of ancient 
Rome, the first in the field, and the last out of it." 

July 16th, 1839, he acknowledged that he was a " rampant 
Jackson blockhead;"— for he had outlived his early enthusias- 
tic political life ; but during the campaign itself he was a brave 
and determined political soldier. No one will doubt it, who 
compares him with those around him. 

The Boston Morning Post edited by Charles G. Greene, 
brother of Nathaniel Greene, the Boston post-master, was 
commenced in November. Mr. Greene was a young and ardent 
politician, who still publishes that paper, one of the best jour- 
nals of Massachusetts. Mr. Bennett noticed the first number 
in handsome terms, and in doing so, showed his real opinions 
on Journalism. He said : 

" An editor must always be with the people, think with 
them, feel with them, and he need fear nothing. He will 
always be right, always strong, always popular, always free. 
The world has been humbugged long enough by spouters, and 
talkers, and conventioners, and legislators, et id, genus omne. 
This is the editorial age, and the most intellectual of all 



Towards the close of the year Mr. Bennett went to Wash- 
ington, when he arranged preliminaries for running an express 
with the President's Message. He supposed that it could be 
accomplished within thirteen hours. The feat was accomplished 
in fifteen hours, the Courier and Enquirer having the document 
exclusively. This express was run against the enterprise of 
what was called the " association." By the way, there was no 
little enterprise among the newspapers, even at that time. In 
1827, the journals had but one news-boat. It was sustained 
by the associated interests. The Journal of Commerce then 
introduced a boat bearing its own name. Thus matters con- 
tinued till 1830, when the Courier and Enquirer took indepen- 



THE ELEPHANT. 135 

dent ground. At a later day, the latter establishment supplied 
the Journal with its news for the sum of three thousand dol- 
lars per annum. 

In the outset, however, the rivalry in collecting foreign news 
was very active, and was carried on with some unfairness. 
The Courier and Enquirer a few days after the announcement 
of the fall of Warsaw, in the Polish War, in order to expose 
those who were guilty of appropriating news without credit, 
prepared a denial of the original account, and printed a small 
edition, prepared expressly to reach the offices of the morning 
journals. The statement purported to be gleaned from papers 
brought by the ship Ajax. There was no such arrival. The 
article was copied by several papers, and the Journal of Com- 
merce sent it forth in the country edition as news T^hich had 
been obtained originally by its own enterprise. In the city 
edition, however, credit was given to the Courier and Enquirer. 
Other papers announced the news without giving any credit to 
the source of it. The hoax created much excitement among 
journalists ; and the public, or that small portion of society, 
to which newspapers were familiar, enjoyed the joke. 

Prior to this year, a great dramatic artist had been announced 
for several months as a European prodigy. The journals con- 
tained glowing accounts of her virtues and talents, for 
Mademoiselle D'Jack was, indeed, a wonder. Like all great 
artists, she condescended at last to visit the country that had 
been favored with her history and accomplishments. She was 
the great elephant of Siam, and first performed in January. 
Since then, every season has had its wonder, and the people 
" have seen the elephant " in every possible shape ; but it is 
always the elephant ! 



136 WILLIAM L. MARCY. 



CHAPTER X. 



In the Spring of 1832, during the session of Congress, Mr. 
Bennett was at Washington as one of the editors of the Courier 
and Enquirer, writing every day, and enjoying there the confi- 
dence of the party and of the politicians of his school, and corres- 
ponding ^vith that journal. William L. Marcy was then in the 
Senate. Mr. Bennett had intercourse with him frequently on 
political subjects. According to Mr. Bennett, they never " dis- 
cussed piety like Benjamin F.Butler, or finance on the plan of 
John Van Buren. They were men of business — practical poli- 
ticians — adhered to the matter before them ; — they did not 
trouble themselves about the stated preaching of the gospel, or 
trouble themselves about the price of stocks, or the chances of 
an election wager." 

One day, Senator Marcy invited Mr. Bennett to take a walk 
through Pennsylvania Avenue, and during the conversation 
exhibited an unwonted anxiety on some unexpressed thought. 
Mr. Bennett perceived this, for he knew Mr. Marcy exceed- 
ingly well, by the daily intercourse between them, and was 
able to judge of the true condition of his mind. 

Finally, after much coaxing and hesitation, it appeared that 
Mr. Marcy was desirous of being put forward in the Courier 
and Enquirer as a candidate for the gubernatorial office of New 
York. This suggestion, it was thought, would operate on the 
Convention in Herkimer county, to be held in the Autumn. 

Mr. Bennett thought of the matter carefully for several 
weeks, and finally wrote twenty or thirty private letters to Mr. 
Webb on the subject, urging him to nominate Mr. Marcy. Mr. 
Bennett did all this with the most honorable feelings towards 



CERTIFICATE OF CHARACTER. 137 

the gentlemen concerned, and with especial reference to the 
position of Mr. Webb with the party, — at that time suspicions, 
in consequence of Mr. Webb's connexion with the United 
States Bank. 

On political grounds, he believed that it was an important 
movement, because the Courier and Enquirer would check- 
mate the Albany Argus and the " Regency." 

Mr. Marcy pretended that Mr. Bennett conveyed more in 
these letters than he himself intended to be understood with 
respect to the governorship. It was a mere pretence, as is 
easily seen by the historian. No doubt Mr. Marcy was highly 
gratified. The only fear he had was of the threats of the 
" Regency," whose secrets and movements he declared every 
day or two to Mr. Bennett, who worked with them through the 
Courier and Enquirer, where Mr. Marcy's nomination, subject 
to the decision of the Herkimer Convention, was made on the 
12th of April. Politicians always use journalists, if they can, 
and then abuse them, if it be convenient. Mr. Bennett was the 
instrument that raised William L. Marcy into the gubernatorial 
office. 

Mr. Bennett was active at this time also in moving the wires 
in behalf of Mr. Van Buren's nomination as Vice President. 
The Senate of the United States having rejected, on the 25th 
of January, Mr. Van Buren's appointment as minister to the 
court of St. James, an admirable opportunity occurred to make 
him a successful candidate for an office that should always be 
considered, as it sometimes proves to be, second in importance 
only to that of the Chief-magistracy. On the 30th of January 
the Courier and Enquirer, while Mr. Bennett was at the helm, 
placed his name under Andrew Jackson's, reserving any action 
till " the decision of the Baltimore Convention in May." 

On the 2d of February the Courier and Enquirer contained 
the annexed article, which appears to be the one designated as 
a " Certificate of character," in an explanatory history, which 
will find its appropriate place hereafter. The precise altera- 
tions said to have been made in the original document are not 
known ; they do not appear to have been important, however. 



138 AVOWAL OF AUTHORSHIP. 



UNITED STATES BANK. 



The editor of the Albany Argus, in his paper of the 31st ultimo, 
accuses Mr. Noah of having written several articles on the United States 
Bank, which appeared in this paper during the last winter, as follows : 

" Were not the articles published in the Courier and Enquirer last 
winter, attacking the United States Bank, written by M. M. Noah ? 
Did he not draw that portrait of this Monied Oligarchy, which was pub 
lished in the Courier and Enquirer on the 5th of February last ? And 
did he not in that article charge the Bank with 'furnishing capital and 
thought at the same moment ' — ' with buying men and votes as cattle in 
the market ' — with corrupting the servants of the people,' and ' withering, 
as by a subtle poison, the liberty of the Press,' ' and pointing to its 
golden vaults as the weapon that will execute its behests, whenever it 
shall be necessary to carry them into execution ?" 

I wrote those articles. I wrote them on my own responsibility as one 
of the editors of this paper, without consultation on the subject in any 
quarter. They were opinions growing out of an independent exercise 
of mind on the general history of banks, and applicable to banking 
incorporations of every description. As I agree with the Argus on the 
United States Bank, I presume of course that he will agree with me on 
state banks. All banking institutions made exclusive by legislative 
acts, though practically useful to those dealing with them, are, to the 
extent of the privileges conferred on the few and denied to the many, 
infringements upon the natural rights of man. The true theory is — 
perfect freedom in banking as in any other business, with legislative 
restrictions to protect the community. There is no material difference 
between one set of banks and another, unless it be in the extent of capi- 
tal and the degree of privilege. 

I entertained these opinions then. I entertain them still ; and I sup- 
pose if the editor of the Argus were put in the confessional, he would 
entertain such opinions also. Be they right or wrong, they ought not to 
be used for the purpose of affecting injuriously the reputation and con- 
sistency of others not justly responsible for them. Mr. Webb always 
expressed himself to me in favor of a modified re-charter of the United 
States Bank; and Mr. Noah, during my connexion with him in the old 
Enquirer, always considered the Bank as being originally chartered with- 
out authority from the Constitution, but yet believed that in its practical 
operation it could be made a salutary check upon the improvident issues 
of state banks. When Mr. Morehouse's resolution was introduced in 
the last Legislature, I wrote an article recommending its adoption. Tho 



IMPORTANT OPINION. 139 

Legislature of Pennsylvania moving in the same matter, Mr. Noah 
deprecated the calling up of the Morehouse Resolution, as uncalled for 
and calculated to impair the good understanding between the two States. 
It is at all times a disagreeable intrusion to be pestering the public 
with squabbles and differences of editors — with their replies and re- 
joinders on personal matters. What care the people, if they receive a 
good newspaper, with plenty of news, full of life and variety, whether 
such an editor's opinion differs a shade from his neighbor's or not % But 
to remove the strong but very natural delusion under which the editor 
of the Argus has been laboring for some time past in relation to indi- 
viduals, and to prevent the uses to which these errors might be turned in 
other respects, I have for the first time in a period of several years that I 
have been an editor, thrust my name before the public. Of course I 
hope to be forgiven, but care very little whether I am or not. 

James Gordon Bennett. 

Mr. Bennett continued at Washington for two or three 
months, and while the Senate and House of Representatives 
were making their celebrated Reports on the United States 
Bank. There was a majority report, under the auspices of C. 
C. Cambreleng, against the institution; a minority report by 
Mr. McDume favorable to the Bank ; and another by John 
Quincy Adams of the committee of the House. The latter 
document may be deemed the most sensible of all those pre- 
sented for a public verdict. Mr. Adams laid down some im- 
portant principles in his essay. One as to asking testimony 
of Messrs. Webb and Noah, and the refusal of Silas E. Bur- 
roughs to appear before the committee, is of a character worthy 
of being reproduced here. After referring to the fact that the 
editors just named had had their private transactions brought 
before the country, while the editors of the National Intelligen- 
ce?-, of the National Gazette, of the United States Telegraph, 
of the Globe, of the Richmond Enquirer, all of whom were 
borrowers of the Bank, had not been disturbed, he declared 
that Mr. Burroughs, " with a just estimate of his own rights," 
did not give heed to the subpoena of the committee, and added : 

" As editors of a public journal, and in that character as 
guardians and protectors of the freedom of the Press, the sub- 
scriber is of opinion that neither Mr. Webb nor Mr. Noah 



140 DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIP. 

ought to have appeared in person or by affidavit before the 
committee. If in their transactions with the Bank they had 
committed any violation of law, they could not be examined as 
witnesses to criminate themselves ; if they had committed no 
violation of law, the inquisitorial powers of the committee did 
not extend to them. Their transactions with the Bank, unforbid- 
den by the law of the land, were no more within the lawful 
scrutiny of the committee, than the dwelling-house, the fire- 
side, or the bed-chamber, of any of them. These, even in the 
darkness o£ heathen antiquity, were the altars of the household 
gods. To touch them with the hand of power is profanation. 
Assailed, however, in reputation, as they already were and had 
been, on account of these transactions, by their political ene- 
mies, and the enemies of the Bank, from false and exaggerated 
rumors concerning them which had crept into public notice, 
it was certainly not unnatural, and perhaps not improper in 
them, to state in full candor and sincerity what their transac- 
tions with the Bank had been." 

In consideration of the course taken by Mr., Webb's own 
political allies against him, it is not strange that the Courier 
and Enquirer should have been forced into a position of a very 
remarkable kind, particularly as the events which settled the 
dissolution of partnership between Messrs. Noah and Webb on 
the 18th of August, 1832, were connected with the secret and 
true ownership of the establishment. Messrs. Webb and Noah 
were not the sole proprietors of the journal, and when Mr. 
Noah retired, the half was purchased not of him, or of Mr. 
Webb, but belonged to that enterprising gentleman Mr. 
Silas E. Burroughs, so well known for his extensive operations 
in commerce, and for opening intercourse with peoples un- 
familiar to American merchants. 

Mr. Webb removed the names of Jackson, Van Buren, and 
Marcy from the head of his journal on the 23d of August, and 
in an article, three columns in length, he assigned very fair 
reasons for his conduct, and proclaimed the general purposes 
which he intended to pursue for the future. Ostensibly he was 
the proprietor of the establishment ; but in fact he was only a 



GRATITUDE OF THE PARTY. 141 

partner. This, however, is a matter that does not require fuller 
explanation in this volume. It should be remembered, how- 
ever, that other papers turned against Jackson. The Phila- 
delphia Inquirer was one of these. Mr. Bennett must be 
looked for at such a moment, and if he be found capable of 
being false to his party for the sake of bread, he will be seen 
wheeling into line with the politics of the journal to which his 
pen for years has given vigor and distinction. Is he still at his 
post ? No ! He will not remain with his former associates. 
He throws off his buckler, couches his lance, and rests from 
his labors, till he can decide where to place himself most ad- 
vantageously for effect in the approaching Presidential election. 

Towards the close of August, some efforts of Mr. Bennett 
towards establishing a new journal excited the ire of those de- 
mocrats who were in sympathy with the Standard, and this 
journal commenced attacks on his political character. 

Mr. Webb thus noticed, on the first of September, this spirit 
of animosity so illustrative of the respectability of political 
warfare : 

" Gratitude of the Tarty. James Gordon Bennett, who has 
been associated with us for years — who is a thorough-going, 
' whole-hog ' Jackson man, and who has left us in consequence 
of our ceasing to support him who the Globe says was ' born to 
command,' and whom that servile vehicle of vulgarity and false- 
hood denominates ' the conqueror of the conquerors of Europe,' 
has been denounced by the Federal organ of the Democracy of 
the United States of America. Mr. Bennett has had the au- 
dacity to offer his services to the Republican General Com- 
mittee of Young Men to get up and edit gratuitously a news- 
paper ; and they well knowing that the Federal prints now in 
their employ have neither tact, talent, nor character, referred 
his proposal to a special committee for favorable consideration. 
This has excited the apprehensions of the trio, and straightway 
the Standard, backed by certain office-holders, denounces him 
as anti-Jackson and anti-Hepublican ! 

" The state of New York represents the Democracy of the 
Union ; the city of New York gives tone to the state ; the 



142 IMPORTANT LETTER. 

General Committee govern the city ; they have made the 
Standard their month-piece ; and the Standard has read Mr. 
Bennett out of the party ! Thus is Mr. Bennett's fate for ever 
sealed, and his political character utterly destroyed ! 

" In 1827-8, when Mr. Bennett was ably supporting General 
Jackson John I. Mumford, of the Standard, was circulating 
slanders against his late consort and distributing Coffin Hand- 
Bills ! What a commentary upon Jacksonism, its principles 
and practice ! " 

Early in September, naturally aroused by the harsh and 
disgraceful treatment of his political brothers, Mr. Bennett 
wrote the following, which has not a little history in it : 

The Editor of the Standard. 

Sir : The errors and mistatements in relation to my political career 
into which you have fallen in your article of this morning, seem to re- 
quire a correction from him who ought to have an interest in, and who has 
certainly some knowledge of the matter. I am far, very far from attri- 
buting those misrepresentations to any personal or improper motives on 
your part. I am willing to believe that every man is generous, liberal, 
honest, true, and magnanimous, till his own acts strip the veil from his 
heart and reveal the truth at once to the world. 

The unfriendly temper towards me and rather hasty inferences you 
adopt may be readily expected from the zeal of a recent convert to the 
principles of the Jackson party. The laudable spirit, too, which exists in 
every triumphant party to shoot all deserters, and to put a mark on those 
who are expected to desert, is in the genuine spirit of self-preservation. 
It pervades parties in politics, in business, in fashion, as much as it does 
in armies and in nations. I know also, from experience, that shooting 
political deserters is far more delicious and interesting than all other 
shooting excursions put together. This is a species of refined intellec- 
tual exercise, agreeable to the march of mind and intellect, and as far 
above the vulgar amusement of shooting grouse,, or woodcock, or snipes, 
or canvass-backs, as Duff Green or Stephen Simpson is above the unedu- 
cated, unintellectual "beasts of the fields or birds of the heavens." 

1 have had a long editorial connexion with the Courier and Enquirer. 
That journal has unfortunately turned one of the cleverest political 
somersets that ever man or woman performed before any enraptured 
audience. By those whose minds are heavy and phlegmatic, it might be 
naturally supposed that I had been carried around in the same political 



THE NATIONAL ADVOCATE. 143 

whirl and was landed among an entirely different set than those I had 
formerly associated with. Though this is plausible, it is a great mis- 
take. For more than a year past, I have seen, and marked, and grieved 
at the " premonitory symptoms " of the political cholera which seized the 
Courier the moment my old friend and fellow-sufferer, Major Noah, was 
announced as a joint proprietor, and the paper came out in favor of the 
United States Bank. From that period up to the recent great event, I 
have been sedulously studying the disorder — administering all sorts of 
medicine — trying even the venous injection ; but in spite of my efforts, 
in spite of my hard studies, the fatal distemper increased, till bursting 
beyond all control, the collapse came on — and it bolted into the very 
centre of the camp in which I believe you yourself fought and were 
found during the year 1825. Thus I am left almost alone to tell the sad 
tale. I escaped, however, from shipwreck with every one of my old 
democratic principles and feelings flourishing around me. Mr. Noah, it 
is true, got ashore at the same moment, with what luggage I know not ; 
and I was very glad the other day to hear that he was engaged in a better 
business than party politics — I mean marking a few cases of champagne, 
which will be much wanted to cheer the spirits of the Clay Nationals 
about the middle of November, when they will have heard that not a 
single electoral vote they have got beyond the Alleghany mountains. 

You ask me if I think your memory or that of your party is too short 
to forget my opposition to General Jackson in 1827. This is a very 
naive question. In relation to yourself I might ask a few ugly ques- 
tions ; but my sweetness of temper is so distressingly great that I for- 
bear at present. I believe, however, that the Republican party has, and 
always did have, a good memory for the labors of its disinterested sup- 
porters. If you ask the party, the party will tell you that I always 
supported regular nominations ; that after the state elections of 1826, I 
supported to the best of my power the re-election of Martin Van Buren 
to the United States Senate, in spite of threats and intimations from 
Washington. I was then conducting the National Advocate. Soon after 
the re-election of Mr. Van Buren, I commenced the political movement 
which ultimately carried the state for Andrew Jackson by an article in 
favor of Jackson, Van Buren, and Reform, which brought out the iVa- 
iional Intelligencer with their famous " Signs of the Times." The 
Albany Argus and the Advocate were then marching side by side in 
support of the great cause. About the month of May, Mr. Conant pur- 
chased half of the Advocate, which then came out for Mr. Adams. I left 
it and went to Washington, wher^ I never was either friend or enemy to 
John C. Calhoun ; for I never spoke to him. I continued my support 



144 HINTS TO POLITICIANS. 

of Jackson in the columns of the New York Enquirer, and the new 
Commissary General is, I believe, in possession of sufficient evidence of 
my attachment to the cause. 

As to Duff Green, I know not that I ever possessed particularly his 
confidence, even when he was the central organ of our party. While he 
continued in that position, I do not think, however, there was a great sin 
in cultivating the acquaintance of a man who was personally agreeable, 
and who possessed the confidence of General Jackson himself. When 
Duff abandoned the party he became cool — so did I, and thus our 
acquaintance ceased. 

Your allusion to my private circumstances is neither generous nor 
liberal. Private-life affairs, or private habits, you might add, ought never 
to be invaded by the ruthless spirit of party politics. There ought at 
least to be some spots of human life sacred from political controversy. 
We may be politicians ; but are we not men ? Are we not gentlemen ? 
Are we not Christians'? I might here avail myself of an excellent op- 
portunity to let off a pious and moral effusion ; but having seen how 
very little consideration was given to the Hon. Henry Clay's religious 
awakenings in the United States Senate, I take warning and avoid the 
blunder. 

I cannot see the force of your assertion that«the establishment of a 
new press would be virtually saying there is no confidence in the existing 
party papers. The party patronage is pretty large and tolerably liberal. 
The political vineyard ought to be highly cultivated. Could we not all 
pull harmoniously together like a band of brothers % Could we not all 
unite and beat the opposition at argument, eloquence, wit, or repartee % 
There is nothing aids a good cause so much as a fine, frank, buoyant, 
friendly spirit among its supporters. As far as I know, the suggestion of 
a new paper came from steady party men. The idea you have fancied, 
that it was to go over to the opposition, or to the Courier, after the 
election, is strangely fallacious at the first blush. How could it go over? 
I offered to conduct it under the control of the party. I did not desire 
to mount and ride the party — to command — to dictate — to say " you 
shall do this," or " you shan't do that." I am of a meek and moderate 
temper. In truth, I have more of both of those qualities than I know 
what to do with. I don't know where I laid in such a stock of modesty, 
but I believe I picked up a good deal by frequenting Tammany Hall 
during the elections. That region is as yet a new country to you, and 
I have no doubt you will think and feel differently after you shall have 
been a dweller in the wilderness asjong as I have been. 

I am extremely anxions to aid the great cause. I was the first editor 



MELANCHOLY APPLICATION. 145 

in this state who, in 1827, nominated Jackson and Van Buren together. 
If I make up my mind to establish a paper, I wish you to understand 
that I shall ask no man the liberty of doing so. Offering to aid the party 
and establishing a paper are not one and the same thing. If I see fit, I 
am at liberty to start a paper on my own responsibility, and leave the 
party to judge for themselves what confidence to give it. I am very well 
known to them, and they are as yet independent of all newspaper dicta- 
tion. 

J. Gordon Bennett. 

This letter was first sent to the Standard. That journal 
would not give it a place. It was then sent to the Evening 
Post, where it met with the same fate. It was then given to 
Mr. Webb, inclosed in a note written by Mr. Bennett, in which 
he said that it gave him great concern to be under the necessity 
of asking an anti-Jackson paper to publish it. " The attacks," 
he said, " made upon my political character by the Standard, 
and the illiberal refusal to publish the truth in reply, have 
forced me to make this melancholy application. Every Jack- 
son paper is closed against me, for the most selfish reasons 
imaginable — because I have the temerity of contemplating the 
establishment of a new Democratic paper. I have the consola- 
tion to believe, however, that every one of these individuals 
who are thus united, though now passing for Jackson men, 
were sound Adams or Opposition men in 1828. I understand 
the Clay party are bringing out a long list of seceders from 
the Jackson party, with the view of making a show. We have 
also a large lot of changes to Jacksonism since 1828, and with 
which we could out-flourish you ; but, instead of that, we begin 
to wish that you had them all in your own ranks again ; for if 
they go on at the rate they have done, they will soon break 
up the poor Republican party." 

]\Jr. Webb inserted the letter of Mr. Bennett with prefa- 
tory remarks, doing it " readily " because Mr. Bennett could 
be heard by those to whom he wished to appear consistent. 

Soon after, Mr. Bennett succeeded in making arrangements 
for the publication of a new paper. On the 29th of October he 
issued the first number of the New York Globe. It was the 

7 



146 FINALE TO NEW YORK GLOBE. 

commencement of the cheap political Press, and was sold at 
two cents per copy. In this new journal he discussed the 
prominent topics before the people. Being the sole proprietor 
and editor he had an unshackled spirit, and immediately drew 
around him a large number of readers. His object, however, 
was not to continue the paper beyond the Fall elections. 

Mr. Webb said of Mr. Bennett's journal — " The editor threat- 
ens to teach us the error of our ways, and as we have no doubt 
but he will do so in the true spirit of honorable opposition, we 
say 'lay on Macduff.' That the paper will immediately be- 
come the sole organ of the party we do not doubt, and although 
opposed to the cause it advocates, we most cordially wish the 
editor success in the fullest sense of the term." 

The events of this year not already mentioned were com- 
paratively unimportant. The cholera raged in some parts of 
the country with terrible fatality to life, and affected the enter- 
prise of the whole people. The tariff question was warmly 
agitated. The doctrines of nullification were topics of hourly 
dispute. The Mina and Chapman trial was the chief criminal 
subject, and in the dramatic arena the apology of J. It. Ander- 
son, a vocalist, who had been driven from the Park theatre by 
the people for an alleged defamation of the American charac- 
ter, was about all the novelty, while Mr. Horn, Miss Hughes, 
Mr. Sinclair, Feron, among the English vocalists, and Forna- 
sari, Montresor, Saccomanni, and Stella, of the Italian company, 
gave the most satisfaction, not incidental to the popular per- 
formers permanently resident in the country. 

On the 29th of November Mr. Bennett terminated the publi- 
cation of his journal, with what satisfaction, will be learned by 
the perusal of his card in which he virtually retired from party 
politics. 

TO THE PUBLIC. 

With this number the publication of the New York Globe is closed for 
the present. All debts due the establishment are to be collected only 
under the authority of the undersigned. Those subscribers who have 
paid in advance shall have their money paid over or refunded in any 
mode to be pointed out. 



A SUMMING UP. 147 

During the brief but agreeable career of the Globe, I have been gratified 
with the support and encouragement of tr/e first men of the country. At 
a future day its publication may be resumed ; but at present other views 
and other purposes have determined me vo the course I have adopted. 
For eight years I have labored in the causa of democracy. I was one 
of the first to support General Jackson andMr. Van Buren in this state. 
I have never quitted their cause amid all the changes and mutations that 
were constantly taking place around me. General Jackson is now firmly 
seated in the high office he fills so well, for his la^t Presidential term ; 
and Mr. Van Buren, elected to preside over the very Senate which 
deemed him unfit for public service abroad, stands in a most interesting 
attitude before the democracy of the nation. I retire, therefore, under 
the full consciousness that I have acquitted myself of every obligation to 
party, to principle, and to men. Whatever pledge I have given, has 
been fulfilled to the very letter. With these brief remarks I retire from 
the political field, and bid my readers a heart-felt and affectionate fare- 
well. 

New York, Nov. 29, 1832. James Gordon Bennett. 

In justice to Mr. Bennett his own account of his connexion 
with Messrs. Webb and Noah will be introduced here, as a very- 
appropriate summing up of the events which have been noticed 
already somewhat in detail. 

" I very well recollect the curious movements which took 
place during the years 1829, '30, '31, and '32, in which Noah 
and Webb exhibited themselves in a very amusing light, and 
in which we, to our sorrow, participated to some degree. It is 
very true, as Mr. Webb states in the above paragraph, that 
during a great pressure which bore against his reputation in 
1832, in relation to this United States Bank affair, out of pity 
and compassion for his disconsolate condition, I did give him a 
certificate in relation to his agency in writing articles and in 
entertaining opinions respecting the United States Bank. I 
certainly did give him that certificate of character ; but I was 
very much astonished, indeed, to find that certificate published 
next day in the Courier in an altered and different form, and if 
Mr. Webb can turn to the original certificate now and compare 
it with that which he printed, he will see the extent of the 
alterations which were, I afterwards understood, made by his 



148 AMOS KENDALL'S EDITORIAL. 

own hand, thus making me certify in a different sense to that 
which I intended. 

" The whole history of the connexion of Mr. Noah and Mr. 
Webb with the United States Bank in those years I know 
very well. For a considerable time after I joined the Courier 
and Enquirer in 1829, and the greater portion of which journal 
I then wrote with my own hand — and up to the year 1830, it 
presented no particular hostility to the United States Bank. 
Several articles were written and published at that time, but 
they had reference merely to the establishment of a branch 
bank at Buffalo, and another at Utica, and regarded the ques- 
tion merely in a practical point of view. "With these articles 
it is of course probable that Mr. Webb joined in opinion ; but 
I think""it was in the month of November, 1829, when M. M. 
Noah was Surveyor of the Port, that in going to his office one 
day, I found him reading a letter which he had just received 
from Amos Kendall, and which informed him that ground would 
be taken against the Bank by General Jackson in the message 
to be delivered the next month on the opening of Congress. 
On the same day, a portion of Amos Kendall's letter, with a 
head and tail put to it, was sent over to the Courier office and 
published as an editorial next morning. This was the first 
savage attack on the United States Bank in the columns of the 
Courier and Enquirer. 

" When I found that the paper was committed in that direc- 
tion, as I of course supposed with the consent of all parties, I 
then began to look at the question in a financial, constitutional, 
and political point of view ; and during the year 1830 I fre- 
quently wrote very strong articles on the subject, which were 
uniformly, at least silently, approved of by Mr. Webb and Mr. 
Noah ; for I never heard them offer the slightest objection. 
The Courier continued for some time in the same position — 
sometimes Mr. Noah writing articles, sometimes myself, and 
sometimes others ; all, however, hostile to the Bank and its 
re-charter, and approbatory of the course adopted by General 
Jackson with regard to that institution. All this was very 
well known to Mr. Webb, and I never heard any intimation 



A LITTLE ASTONISHMENT. 149 

that it was contrary to his views or inconsistent with his in- 
terest. 

"In process of time, however, in the Spring of 1831, all on 
a sudden I discovered, from a conversation with Silas E. Bur- 
roughs, that there was a negotiation a-foot between him and 
M. M. Noah to change the tone of the Courier and Enquirer, 
and this was to he effected by Noah purchasing one half and 
Mr. Tylee going out. This negotiation was kept very silent 
between Noah, Webb, and Burroughs, until it was completed. 
And then I at once saw preparations made by all the parties 
to change entirely the tone of the Courier towards the United 
States Bank. To my surprise and astonishment, I now dis- 
covered that Mr. Noah, who had been laboring so hard the 
year before to blow up the Bank, was now laboring as hard to 
heal its sores, to give it a longer lease of life, and perpetuate 
its existence in the country. 

" Matters continued in this state until the Committee of 
Congress met, of which Mr. Cambreleng was chairman, or 
principal member, and the whole of the private negotiations 
which had terminated in the change of the Courier and En- 
quirer came out at Washington. I was in the city of Washing- 
ton at the time, reporting for the Courier, and nothing so much 
astonished me as this discovery and the story of the fifty -two 
thousand dollars, promulgated to the world. In 1832, when 
the democratic newspapers pressed hard on Mr. Webb in 
relation to this business, he came to me and begged very 
piteously for a certificate of character. This was about the 
time that I left the Courier. Well, with that generosity to- 
wards an old friend which I always endeavored to cherish and 
exhibit, I sat down and gave him that certificate, stating in 
substance precisely his position in relation to these attacks on 
the United States Bank, and the subsequent change in the 
character and tone of the paper. This certificate he published 
with the modifications and alterations to which I have already 
alluded, and which, I need hardly say, astonished me very 
much. 

" Now, in reference to this United States Bank question, on 



150 FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY. 

the point of morals, I never did entertain the opinion that Mr 
Webb was so much to blame at all on the score of incon- 
sistency as Noah, his then partner and associate. The Courier 
and Enquirer was in some financial difficulty at the period the 
war was made by the Bank, and Mr. Noah, when he saw the 
breeches pocket of Mr. Biddle open, entered it immediately, 
and presented the chief exemplar of inconsistency and tergi- 
versation." 



LITERARY ARTICLES. 151. 



CHAPTER XI 



Mr. Bennett's contributions to the periodical literature of 
the country up to the period now arrived at, had given him no 
little distinction ; for his style was piquant and simple, with a 
peculiar elegance that neither was deformed by pretension 
nor weakened by affectation. It was a sincere style, indeed, 
in which the natural humor of the writer, and his neat sarcasms 
upon public follies and manners, played on the surface as the 
light plays on the shell of pearl, revealing prismatic hues of 
every possible shade and tint. If his newspaper articles had 
made him known to the social and political world, so his pure 
literary labors in the republic of letters had bestowed upon 
him a fame that was associated with the names of all those 
authors who distinguished the Mirror of George P. Morris, 
and the popular literary magazines of the day. 

Mr. Bennett frequently wrote for the New York Mirror, and 
when the selections of choice stories and sketches from 
it were made for republication in the book form, the con- 
tributions of Mr. Bennett were placed as second in value to 
none of the gems by which they were surrounded. He had 
not produced them in seasons of literary ease, such as wealthy 
men of letters may enjoy, but they were thrown off from his 
active pen in hours stolen from the domain of sleep, when he 
had been fatigued with the wearisome and fagging toil inciden- 
tal to daily Journalism. In those days, Paulding, Cooper, 
Bryant, Flint, Neal, Leggett, Fay, Willis, Simms, Sands, 
Morris, and others, were continually before the public in the 
literary gazettes, and it was deemed no small honor to be as- 
sociated with such writers. That Mr. Bennett took rank among 



153 TWO YARDS OF JACONET, 

them, therefore, is sufficient proof of the estimation in which 
his talents were held before the political necessity had been 
generated to crush the influence of his mind in the arena of 
party politics, or, as it might be appropriately called, the den 
of political bandits and plunderers — those men who systemati- 
cally keep the whole country in a state of excitement, for the 
purpose of holding, in their turns, the keys to the public trea- 
sure, and who avowedly play games not only with principles, 
but with the very characters of those who by their virtues or 
talents seem destined to grace the history of the country. 

Nothing was said against Mr. Bennett's talents or character, 
till he entered the political temple, where the buying and sell- 
ing, and getting gain, had grown into a system wholly at 
variance with the spirit and temper of the American political 
faith. The money-changers had possession of the whole edi- 
fice, and when they were liable to be driven out, nothing but 
the destruction of every one who was suspected or feared satis- 
fied their reckless dispositions. Not only Mr. Bennett's political 
value, as will soon be seen, was to be questioned and denied, 
but even his literary fame was to be abridged. Let the reader 
detect from this point, therefore, the operation of that unde- 
fined machinery which, ever restless, ever active, will be 
found in conflict with the Man of these memoirs. 

Yet, that the uninitiated reader may have an opportunity of 
judging for himself of the merits of Mr. Bennett's contributions 
to the literary journals, one of his sketches, selected for its 
brevity, as a specimen, will not be an inappropriate episode to 
this history. 



TWO YARDS OF JACONET, OR A HUSBAND. 

" I wish," said Mary Ann, " I had two yards of jaconet. I want it very 
much to complete this dress for the next birthday at Richmond. I want, 
besides, a pretty large length of pea-green ribbon. I want a feather, a 
white feather, to my last bonnet. I want — " 

"Well, my dear," said Louisa, her companion, " well, my dear, it seems 



OR A HUSBAND. 153 

you have wants enough. Pray how many more tilings do you want 
besides ? " 

" More ! " returned Ann, " why a hundred more, to be sure," said she 
laughing ; " but I'll name them all in one — I want a husband — a real, 
downright husband." 

" Indeed ! " said Louisa, " this is the first time I ever heard you talk 
of such an article. Can't you select out one among your many admi- 
rers ? " 

" A fig for my admirers ! I'm tired — I'm sick — I'm disgusted with my 

admirers. One comes and makes silly compliments ; says ' Miss B , 

how pretty you look to-day ;' another sickens me with his silly looks ; 
another is so desperately in love with me, that he can't talk ; another, so 
desperately in love with himself, that he talks for ever. Oh ! I wish I 
were married; I wish I had a husband; or at least two yards of jaconet, 
to finish this dress for the Richmond campaign." 

Mary Ann B was a gay, young, rattling creature, who had lost 

her father and part of her heart at fourteen. She was now seventeen ; 
possessed a fine figure, rather embonpoint ; not tall, but very gracefully 
rounded off. Her profuse auburn ringlets clustered negligently round 
a. pair of cheeks, in which the pure red and white mingled so delicately, 
that where the one began, or the other ended, no one could tell. Her 
eyes were dark blue, but possessing a lustre when lighted up with feeling 
or enthusiasm, which defied any one to distinguish them from burning 
black. Her motions were light, airy, and graceful. Her foot and ankle 
were most elegantly formed ; and her two small white hands, with soft, 
tapering fingers, were as aristocratic as could be imagined by a Byron or 
an AJi Pacha. Since the death of her father, which was a period of 
about two years or more, she had had many admirers, several decided 
offers, and not a few who hoped, but durst not venture upon the fatal 
question. She laughed at their offers, ridiculed her admirers, and pro- 
tested that she would never marry till she had brought at least a hundred 
to her feet. For several counties around, up and down James river, she 
was quite a toast among the young planters. 

In those days the white sulphur, blue sulphur, and hot sulphur springs 
were not much frequented ; but people of fashion in lower Virginia, the 
wealthy planters, were just beginning to escape to the Blue Mountains 
during the autumnal months. In one of those excursions, the party, of 
which Mary Ann made a lively member, was overtaken one afternoon in 
a sudden rain-storm, at the entrance of one of the gorges in the mountains. 
The party was travelling in an open carriage, with a sort of top resembling 
that of a gig, to spread out when a shower broke over them with sudden 



154 TWO YARDS OF JACONET, 

violence. On the present occasion the leather top afforded to the ladies 
a very inadequate shelter from the torrents which fell down from the 
dark heavy clouds above. The first house they approached was there- 
fore kindly welcomed. They dismounted, went in, and found several 
young gentlemen surrounding the hickory fire, which was crackling mer- 
rily on a large wide hearth. 

A young man, of rather modest, easy, but unobtrusive manners, rose 
at the approach of Mary Ann, and offered her his chair. She accepted 
it, with a slight inclination of the head, and a quiet glance at his general 
appearance. Nothing remarkable took place at this interview; but a 
few days after, when they had all reached the foot of one of the moun- 
tains, which was appropriated as the place of gaiety and fashion, the 

young gentleman was formally introduced to Mary Ann, as Mr. C , 

from Williamsburgh, in lower Virginia. In a very short period he be- 
came the devoted admirer of Mary Ann — was extremely and delicately 
attentive — and, of course, gave rise to many surmises among the match- 
makers and match-breakers of the springs. At the close of the season 
he put forth his pretensions in form. He offered himself formally to 
Mary Ann, As usual, she spent a whole night in thinking, crying, 
deliberating, grieving, wondering, and next morning sent him a flat 
refusal. 

So this affair, which is a specimen of about thirty or forty she had 
managed in this way, was considered closed beyond all hopes of revival. 
The parties never again met, till the moment we have now reached threw 
them accidentally into each other's company. 

Since the period just referred to, Mary Ann had considerably altered 
in her feelings and her views. She had pursued the game of catching 
admirers — of leading them on to declare themselves — and of then reject- 
ing, with tears and regrets in abundance, till she, and the whole world 
of young men, became mutually disgusted with each other. Yet she 
had many excelleut qualities — was a fast and enduring friend — knew, as 
well as any one, the folly of her course of life ; but her ambition, her 
love of conquest, her pride of talent, her desire of winning away the ad- 
mirers of her female rivals, entirely clouded and obscured her more 
amiable qualities of mind and heart. 

" How long have you been in Williamsburgh, Mary Ann?" asked her 
chere amie. 

" Only three days, and I have only picked up three beaux. What a 
dull place this is. It is called the ' classic shades ' — the ' academic groves 
of the Old Dominion,' and all that sort of thing. One of the professors 
entertained me a good two hours the other evening with the loves of 
Dido and iEneas. I wish I had a couple of yards of jaconet." 



OR A HUSBAND. 155 

« Or a husband —" 

" Or a husband either, I don't care which ; come, my love, let's a shop< 
ping in this classic town." 

The two ladies immediately rose, it was about noon-day, put on their 
bonnets, took their parasols, and sallied forth. 

" For a husband or jaconet, you say." 

" Two yards of jaconet, or a husband." 

The town of Williamsburgh, like every other little town in Virginia, 
or even New York, does not contain many stores. A shopping expedition 
is therefore soon completed. The two ladies sauntered into this shop, 
then into that, sometimes making the poor fellow of a shop-keeper turn 
out his whole stock in trade, and rewarding his pains by the purchase 
of a six-penoy worth of tape. They had proceeded for an hour in this 
lounging, lazy style, when Louisa said, " Oh, Mary Ann, here is an old 
beau of yours in that store, with the red gingham flapping at the door 
like a pirate's flag ; come, let us go and plague him for ' auld lang syne,' 
as Mrs. McDonald, the Scotch lady of Norfolk, says." 

" Certainly," said Mary Ann, " but which of my old admirers is it ? " 

" Have you got your list in your pocket ? " 

"Not at all, I left it at my grandmother's at Richmond; what a 
pity!" 

The two wild creatures, bounding like a couple of fawns over the 
forest glade, for they were reckless of the public opinion amoag the old 
dowagers and staid maidens of Williamsburgh, entered the store and 
asked for a sight of gloves, muslins, and ribbons. Mary Ann did not 
seem to pay much attention to the fine articles shown her. She ever 
and anon cast her eyes by stealth round and round the store, endeavor- 
ing to discover if she recognised any of the faces, as that of an old 
acquaintance. She could see nothing to repay the effort. Not a face 
had she ever seen before. She summoned up to her recollection all her 
former admirers — they passed through her mind like the ghosts in Mac- 
beth ; for, notwithstanding her rejection of so many lovers, she ever 
retained a eertain portion of regard for every poor fellow who had fallen 
a victim to her whim, beauty, witchery, and caprice. 

" This is an Arabian desert," said Mary Ann, sighing to Louisa, as 
she split a pair of kid gloves, in endeavouring to get them on. 

"Oh! no," said a gay young shopman; "indeed, Miss, they are the 
best French kid." 

" Pray," said Louisa, in a low tone, " don't you see anything in the 
back room of the store ? " 

In a remote corner of the store, there stood at the desk a plainly 



156 TWO YARDS OF JACONET, 

dressed gentleman, leaning over the corner of a wooden railing, with his 
eyes firmly fixed upon the two ladies, now so actively engaged in tossing 
over the counter all sorts of merchandize and light French goods. 

" As I live," said Mary Ann, " there is my old Blue Ridge beau. Oh, 
how wet I was," whispered she, " drenched with a summer shower, when 
first I was thrown into his society. I believe the poor fellow loved me 
sincerely. Come, let us spend upon him at least ten dollars in jaconet ; 
he spent one hundred upon me in balls, dancing, colds, cough-drops, and 
drives, got nothing for his pains but a neat billet-doux, declining his poor 
heart and soft hand. Poor fellow !" 

With this sally the ladies bought several articles, scarcely caring 
whether they suited them or not. When they left the store, Mary Ann 
fell into a reverie, was quite silent, which for her was unusual and singu- 
lar. Louisa's spirits, on the contrary, gathered life and energy as those 
of her companion sank away. She talked, she laughed, she ridiculed 
her beaux, she rallied Mary Ann, and looking into her for-once-melan- 
choly face said, " So, my love, you are caught at last." 

" Caught !" said Mary Ann, " indeed you are much mistaken. I do 
not think — that is to say, I fancy I should not like to marry my Blue 
Ridge beau. Oh ! Louisa," said she, after a pause, with a tear in her 
eye, "what a foolish creature I have been. Mr. Collingwood, for that is 
his name, I am sure, quite sure, does not think of me ; but I cannot 
remember the attentions he once paid me without a feeling of regret." 

" Why ? now what's the matter with you l . After refusing so many, 
are you going to throw yourself away upon a shopkeeper % A descend- 
ant of one of the most ancient families in Virginia to marry a shop- 
keeper ! " 

" Alas ! alas ! Louisa, what is descent 1 What is fashion ? What is 
all the life I have led ? Do you see that little white house, with green 
Venetian blinds, across the street % I was one evening in that house. I 
saw enough to satisfy me that I have been pursuing pleasure, not happi- 
ness. Oh ! if I could only feel as that young wife does !" 

"You laugh — I am sure I do not think of Mr. Collingwood — but 
there was a time when his soft, quiet, affectionate manner did touch me 
most sensitively." 

" Have you got the gloves you bought ?" asked Louisa. 

Mary Ann looked. She had forgotten them on the counter, or lost them. 

" We must return then," said Louisa. 

" Never," said Mary Ann. " I never dare look at him. I am sure he 
despises me. Oh ! if he only knew what I feel — what pangs pass 
through this heart, I am sure he would not — " 



OR A HUSBAND. 157 

" Come, come," said Louisa, " we must return and get the gloves." 

" Never." 

" Oh ! the jaconet or a husband, most assuredly ; you remember 
your resolution when we set out ?" 

Mary Ann smiled, while her eyes glistened with a tear* They re- 
turned home, however, and sent Cato, the colored servant, for the 
articles they had forgotten. 

After this adventure, it was observed that a visible change came over 
the manners and spirits of Mary Ann. Her gay, brilliant sallies of wit 
and ridicule were moderated amazingly. She became quite pensive ; singu- 
larly thoughtful for a girl of her unusual flow of spirits. When Louisa 
rallied her on the shopping excursion, she replied, " Indeed, Louisa, I do 
not think I could marry Mr. Collingwood ; besides, he has forgotten 
every feeling he may have entertained towards me." 

In a few days after this event, a party was given one evening at a 
neighboring house. The family in which Mary Ann resided were all 
invited. The moment of re-union approached; and Mary Ann, dressed 
with great elegance, but far less splendor than usual, found herself at the 
head of a cotillon, surrounded with several young gentlemen, students 
of William and Mary's, professors, planters, and merchants. They were 
pressing forward in every direction, talking, and catching a word or a look 
from so celebrated a belle. Mary Ann, however, did not appear to enjoy 
the group that surrounded her. She was shooting her dark blue eyes 
easily and negligently towards the entrance, as every new face came for- 
ward to see all the party. The music struck up, and rallying her atten- 
tion, she immediately stept off on a dos-d-dos, with that elegance and 
grace for which she was so particularly remarkable. At the close, as she 
stood up beside her partner, throwing a beautiful auburn ringlet back 
upon her white round neck, her eye caught, with sudden emotion, a 
quiet, genteel-looking person, at the other end of the room. It was Mr. 
Collingwood. She immediately dropped her eyes to the floor, and 
looked very narrowly at her left foot, as she moved it on the toe back- 
wards and forwards, as it were for want of thought or to divert her 
thoughts. In a few seconds she looked up in the same direction. Mr. 
Collingwood still stood in the same position, watching every motion she 
made, and every look she cast around her. She blushed — felt embar- 
rassed — and went altogether wrong in the cotillon. 

" What in the world are you thinking of % " asked Louisa. 

" I scarcely know myself," said Mary Ann. 

In a few seconds the cotillon was brought to a close, and Mary Ann's 
partner escorted her to a seat. Mr. Collingwood approached through 
the crowd, and stood before her. 



158 TWO YARDS OF JACONET, 

" How is Miss 1 '' asked Mr. Collingwood, with suppressed 

emotion. 

Mary Ann muttered out a few words in reply. She dropped her glove. 
Mr. Collingwood picked it up. 

" This is not the first time you have lost a glove," said he, with a 
smile. 

She received it, and cast upon him a look of inconceivable sweetness. 

" Do you dance again, Miss ? " 

" I believe not — I am going home." 

" Going home ? " said he, " why the amusements are scarcely begun." 

" They are ended with me," said she, " for the night. I wish my ser- 
vant would fetch my cloak and bonnet." 

" Oh, you can't be going home already." 

" Indeed, I am," said she. 

" Well," said he, with a smile, " I know your positive temper of old. 
Allow me to get your cloak for you ? " 

" Certainly." 

Mr. Collingwood left the room. Louisa and several other female 
friends gathered around her, entreating her on all sides not to leave the 
party ere it was begun. She would not remain. Mr. Collingwood ap- 
peared at the door. In the hall, for it was the fashion then and there to 
do so, Mr. Collingwood took her bonnet and put it on. 

"Allow me," said he, "to tie the strings ?" She nodded assent, and 
while he was tying the ribbon under her chin, he could not help touching 
her soft cheek. He was in ecstacy — she was quiet and resigned. He 
took the cloak — he unfolded it — he stood in front of her — their eyes met 
— both blushed — he pulled the cloak around her shoulders — he folded it 
around and around her bosom — he trembled like a leaf — she trembled 
also — he pressed her warmly to his heart, whispering in her ear—" Oh, 
Mary Ann, if I may hope % yet indulge a hope ? " For a moment 
they were left alone. Her head sunk upon his breast — she could not 
speak — but her heart was like to burst. " Will I — dare I — expect to be 
yet happy ?" Their warm cheeks met — their lips realized it in one long, 
long, long respiration. They tore away from each other without another 
word — every thing was perfectly understood between them. 

At this moment Mrs. Jamieson, the good lady of the mansion, ap- 
proached, and insisted that Mary Ann should not go so early. " It is 
really shameful, my dear," said she, " to think of leaving us at this hour. 
When I go to Richmond, do I leave you thus abruptly] Why, Mr. Col- 
lingwood, can't you prevail upon her to stay a while longer % " 

He shook his head. " All my rhetoric has been exhausted," said he, 
" and it has proved unavailing." 



OR A HUSBAND. 159 

Mary Ann looked at him archly. 

" Well, now," continued the lady, " I insist upon your staying ;" and 
she forthwith proceeded to take off her bonnet, untie her cloak, and sent 
the servant with them into the side apartment. Mary Ann was unre- 
sisting. She was again led into the room. Collingwood danced with 
her all the evening. He escorted her home in the beautiful moonlight, 
and every now and then he pressed the cloak around her, with which 
she appeared not by any means to find fault. 

In about a month, Mary Ann became Mrs. Collingwood ; and im- 
mediately, as the parson had finished the great business of the evening, 
Louisa, who was one of her maids, whispered in her ear, " Two yards of 
jaconet or a husband." She smiled, and passed her arm round Louisa's 
waist. " Both, my love — both, my love„ Jaconet and a husband, a hus- 
band and jaconet." 



160 THE PENNSYLVANIA]*. 



CHAPTER XII 



The step taken by Mr. Bennett, after lie ended his pub- 
lication of the New York Globe, was one which had a very- 
important bearing upon the whole of his subsequent career. 
He had satisfied himself of his ability to amuse and excite 
the public by means of his pen, and had a confidence in his 
own power to control, in some measure, the action of the 
Democratic party to which he still belonged, and with the 
prominent members of which he continued to associate and 
correspond. 

He had saved from his labors only a small sum of money, 
yet it was sufficient to obtain an interest in some daily journal. 
Philadelphia suggested itself as a field for new exertions. He 
went there at once, and after examining the prospects and con- 
dition of the Pennsylvanian, he purchased a portion of that 
journal, and became one of the partners in its publication, 
applying himself chiefly to the editorship. 

One of his acts, after he discovered the duplicity of political 
friendship, was an attempt to picture the character of the 
Stock Exchange in Wall Street — for he was bent upon 
producing an excitement that would draw attention to his 
journal. He dealt, however, in generalities, in his opening 
chapter, yet did enough to raise a hostility against himself 
from some portion of the New York Press. This was 
increased afterwards by his course on the Removal of the 
Deposits. 

Violent articles were published immediately against Mr. 
Bennett. His temerity was censured — his knowledge upon 
the subject on which he had undertaken to write, questioned. 



THE NEEDED LOAN. 161 

This was not all. The course lie had adopted in attacking the 
financiers brought those most interested in money matters in 
secret array against him, and they were not slow in watching 
his course, with which, as far as he was concerned, they had 
not even political sympathy. 

Day after day the Pennsylvanian was subjected . to the 
strictest scrutiny, and the New York Press was active in 
endeavoring to weaken the influence of one who had gone into 
another city, to oppose or favor, as seemed most agreeable to 
himself, those projects which they considered were sufficiently 
well watched by themselves. Was Mr. Bennett suspected 
merely because he had been connected with the Courier and 
Enquirer when it changed its politics 1 

Instead, therefore, of making himself popular with the 
members of his own party and profession in New York, Mr. 
Bennett's course was calculated to inflame their jealousy and 
to increase their envy. His industry was well known, and his 
zeal in pursuing a subject that he had undertaken to analyse 
was feared, because it could interrupt the plans and theories 
of others. 

Thus, when Mr. Bennett needed twenty-five hundred 
dollars as a loan, which he subsequently obtained, and at a 
proper time returned with interest, his political acquaintances 
could not find it for him. Very naturally, he supposed that 
those gentlemen who were benefited most by his services as 
a journalist would be the first to render him any desired assist- 
ance ; but like a thousand other men who have clambered 
upon the slippery ways of politics, he found that he had made 
a mistake. 

Early in 1833, he had expressed to Jesse Hoyt the necessity 
he was under to obtain this loan of twenty-five hundred dollars, 
and there was some encouragement held out that Mr. Van 
Buren, or his friends, would supply it. The application, 
however, was made in vain, at that time ; yet Mr. Bennett 
believed that he would receive it from some quarter, and he 
went on in his editorial course with such energy and spirit as 
he could command. 



162 SUBALTERNS OF KING CAUCUS. 

The service of Mr. Bennett to Mr. Van Bnren and his party 
was acknowledged on all sides. He was confided in for some 
time, and the articles which he wrote gave great satisfaction to 
the dominant party at Washington. On reviewing the columns 
of the Globe of this period, Mr. Bennett's articles from the 
Pennsylvanian will be found not only copied frequently into 
the organ of the administration, but particular stress is given 
to them by their introduction into the editorial columns — which 
is tantamount to an endorsement of the opinions. 

The Globe did more than this. It connected Mr. Bennett 
with the party as a reliable writer, for a considerable period. 
Political cabals, however, work like springs under ground, and 
it is difficult to trace with certainty the channels in which their 
currents run. While Mr. Bennett was working for the good of 
the cause in which he was engaged, other persons were toiling 
in opposition to him, and generating plans which were deemed, 
by Mr. Bennett, to be dangerous to the interests of the 
country. He would not pull like a thill horse, but seemed 
ambitious to be a leader, and to turn according to his own 
sense of right. This was a great sin in the eyes of politicians 
who, in that day, dictated to the Press. Editors were mere 
secretaries writing at the whim and will of political chieftains 
and their aids — the subalterns of King Caucus. There was 
not even a dream, then, of a new order of Journalism that 
should stand superior to, and independent of the degrading 
influences of party spirit. The politicians then drove the 
journalists, as the journalists now drive the politicians. 

Still living and toiling in hope, Mr. Bennett went on, and 
believed that his political acquaintances would be true to him. 
He demanded nothing as a right — nothing more than any man 
of business would expect from those with whom he had con- 
stant dealings. His application was wholly honorable and 
upright, and luckily the proof is on record that in the progress 
of this affair, he displayed a mind not only uncorrupted by 
party, but one worthy of high encomium for its devotion to the 
cause of the people at large, and to principle. 

It was a trying moment for Mr. Bennett, for he was sur- 



AIDS FROM PARTY. 163 

rounded by politicians who did not hesitate to follow the party 
into the wildest excesses of folly and political fanaticism. Mr. 
Bennett did not bend like a willing slave to every breath that was 
wafted towards him. He used more judgment than his neigh- 
bors or his political allies. Hence they began to fear him, and 
to doubt that he was a " reliable " man — that is a mere crea- 
ture of party, ready to use his pen for any scheme of outrage 
or wrong. 

Mr. Bennett wrote letters to Jesse Hoyt which will justify 
the opinion that has been expressed. 

Philadelphia, June 12, 1833. 

Dear Hoyt : You will see by the papers what we are about here. 
My object is to make the party come out for a National Convention. 

It can be done by prudence, skill, and address. 

In relation to what I talked to you in New York, I have an earnest 
word to say. 

I really wish that my friends there would try to aid me in the matter I 
formerly mentioned. 

Morrison I fear will do nothing. 

John Mumford has been aided to the extent of $40,000. With a 
fourth of that sum I would have done twice as much — soberly and with 
some decency, too. 

I should be sorry to be compelled to believe that my friends in New 

York should bestow their friendship more effectually upon a fellow 

than me, who certainly have some pretensions to decency. 

I am sorry to speak harshly of any body, but really I think there is 
something like ingratitude in the way I have been treated. 

I want no favor that I cannot repay. 

I want no aid that is not perfectly safe. 

I should like to hear from you, if there is any likelihood ot my success. 

Yours, &c.j 

J. Gordon Bennett. 
Jesse Hoyt, Esq., &c. &c. 

To this letter Mr. Hoyt replied promptly. 

June 14th. 

My Dear Sir : I received your letter. You will see by the Standard 
of this morning that you are under a misapprehension in relation to 
what has been done here. I do not know what will be the result of that 



164 GOOD SOCIETY PAPERS. 

business. If I had the means I should not hesitate to dc all for you that 
is required, but I do not find any here among all our friends, that are 
willing to put their shoulders to the wheel. All are anxious for honors 
and emolument from party, but are not willing to give the equivalent for 
it. I do not believe that any thing can be done for our paper here, or 
for yours either. Those who are the best able will not contribute a 
farthing. I conversed with several of that description to-day. 

The enthusiasm with which the President has been received exceeds 
ail calculation. 

Yours truly, 

J. HOYT. 

Soon after this letter was received, another was addressed to 
Mr. Bennett which shows that Mr. Hoyt was on very friendly 
terms with the Editor of the Pennsylvanian, and thought his 
paper a " good society" one, for more than one purpose. 

New York, July 11, 1833. 

Dear Bennett : I was asked this morning to make a selection, by 
my friends, the Mohawk Rail Road Co. (or the President thereof), of 
two newspapers in the " clean city " as the best vehicles of communicat- 
ing the fact of the immense accommodation they could now give to the 
travelling public. I selected two " good society papers," that is yours 
and Mr. Walsh's. You will find the advertisement in the Standard of 
to-morrow morning, or in the Gazette of this morning, which I want you 
to copy ten days in succession. I wish you would write a short para- 
graph to call the attention of your readers to it. 

I have read the 10,000 and one toasts published by you, and I per- 
ceive the friends of Mr. McKean fought hard. We had nothing of the 
kind in this quarter. We are all for temperance, and toasts over cold 
water is an up-hill business. 

Yours truly, 

J. HOYT. 

Mr. Bennett did not obtain his loan, it appears, after waiting 
a month or two for it. The consequence was that he continued 
his correspondence on the subject, which will speak for itself, 
and make clearer for the reader the history of this business, to 
which allusion has been made above. 

Philadelphia, July 27, 1833. 
Dear Hoyt : I have written to Van Buren to-day about the old 
affair. I must have a loan of $2500 for a couple of years, from some 



THE TIME WILL COME. 165 

quarter. I can't get on without it— and if the common friends of our 
cause — those I hive been working for eight years — cannot do it, I must 

look for it somewhere else. My business here is doing very well and 

the money would be perfectly safe in two years. You see already the 
effect produced in Pennsylvania — you can have the State. But if our 
friends wont lay aside their heartlessness, why, we'll go to the devil- 
that is all. 

There is no man who will go further with friends than I will — who 
will sacrifice more — who will work harder. You know it very well. 

I must be perfectly independent of the little sections in this city, who 
would hurry me into their small courses at the risk of the main object. 

Kendall leaves Washington to-morrow on his tour of Bank Inspec- 
tion. Let me hear from you. 

Yours, &c, 

James Gordon Bennett. 



New York, Aug. 2, 1833. 
My Dear Sir: I received your letter of the 27th ult., and have 
omitted to make a reply till now, under the hope that I could tell you 
that something could be done. I have made the effort to accomplish 
what you desired, but I have been unsuccessful. There is a perfect 
lethargy prevailing now, which will not be removed till some time near 
the " ides of November." You must persevere, for eventually you will 
not only succeed, but will be placed in a situation gratifying, no doubt, to 
your ambition, as well as your comfort. Your paper is growing in public 
estimation, though some of us here do not like the turn you give to the 
" deposit question." I do not know, and certainly do not care, what is 
done on that subject, further than I desire the administration should do 
what the public (by which I mean the people) would justify and require. 
I saw Mr. Duane while he was here, as many others did. The impres- 
sion he left is a very favorable one, as always will be wherever he goes. 
I do not know what you will think of us, when I say we have not been 
able to comply with your wishes — personally I will do all that I can — but 
you know probably that my means are very limited, and you also know, 
that those who are the best able, and have the greatest interest in such 
matters, are the slowest to do their duty. But, as I said before, perse- 
vere, the time will come when you will not have to request favors. If I 
judge rightly from your present position — this is so. 

Yours truly, 

J. Hoyt. 



166 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FACTS. 

Philadelphia, Aug. 3, 1833. 

Dear Hoyt: I am extremely sorry at the result of your efforts. 
The effect is inevitable ; I must break down in the very midst of one of 
the most important contests which Van Buren's cause ever got into in 
this State. I do not see how I can avoid it. With every advantage in 
my favor — with every preparation made — everything in the finest trim to 
check-mate and corner all the opposition to Van Buren, and to force 
them to come out in his favor — as I know they must do soon — I must 
give way to the counsels of those who have most hostile feelings to the 
cause — and on what ground ? Because neither Mr. Van Buren nor his 
friends will move a finger in my aid. I must say this is heartless in the 
extreme. I do not wish to use any other language than what will con- 
vey mildly the anguish, the disappointment, the despair, I may say, which 
broods over me. If I had been a stranger to Mr. Van Buren and his 
friends — if I had been unknown — if I had been blest in being a block- 
head — I might not have got into my present posture — nor would I have 
expected any aid from your quarter. But after nearly ten years spent in 
New York, working night and day for the cause of Mr. Van Buren and 
his friends ; surrounded, too, as I have been, with those who were con- 
tinually talking against him, and poisoning me to his prejudice, the treat- 
ment w 7 hich I have received from him and his friends during this last 
year, and up to this moment, is as superlatively heartless — and if I could 
use any other word more expressive of my sentiments I would — as it is 
possible to conceive or imagine. By many of those whom I have sup- 
ported for years, I have been suspected, slandered, and reviled as if I 
had been in bitter hostility to Mr. Van Buren for years, instead of sup- 
porting him through every weather, and even sacrificing myself that I 
might retain the same feelings towards him, for I assure you I might 
have continued my connection with the C. and E. last year, very much 
to my advantage — retained my share in the printing office of that esta- 
blishment, if I had not differed with Mr. Webb on the points that you 
know so well of. I sold out, however, to Hoskin — saved a small pittance 
from the wreck of the Globe — came here and invested it in the Penn- 
syhanian, which is now entirely under my control, provided I could find 
a friend any where between heaven and earth to help me along, and 
enable me to carry out my fixed purpose in favor of Van Buren and his 
friends. But that friend God has not yet made, though several of the 
opposite character the other gentleman has put his brand upon, and 
fondly says, " this is mine." 

I except you, dear Hoyt — I am sure you would help the cause if you 
could. I find no fault with you, although what fault you find with me 



A LITTLE PROVOKED. -16? 

about the deposits is nonseDse, aud only a clamor raised in Wall street 
by a few of the jealous blockheads hostile to me, who have not brains to 
see that in this city we can use the deposit question very efficiently in 
the October election. I do not blame even the jealous blockheads or 
any others in New York — I blame only one, and that is the Vice Presi- 
dent himself. He has treated me in this matter as if I had been a boy — 
a child — cold, heartless, careless, and God knows what not. 

By a word to any of his friends in Albany, he could do the friendship 
I want as easily as rise and drink a glass of Saratoga water at the 
Springs. He chooses to sit still — to sacrifice those who have supported 
him in every weather — and even hardly dares to treat me as one gentle- 
man would treat another. 

I scarcely know what course I shall pursue, or what I shall do. I am 
beset on all sides with importunities to cut him — to abandon him. What 
can I do ? What shall I do? I know not. You will excuse this letter, 
you can easily appreciate the situation of a man confident of success if 
supported properly — but nothing before him but the abandonment of his 
deliberate purposes, or a shameful surrender of honor and purpose, and 
principle, and all. 

Yours truly, 

•J. G. Bennett. 

I do not know whether it is worth the while to write to Van Buren 
or not — nor do I care if you were to send him this letter. 



Philadelphia, Aug. 15, 1833. 
Dear Hoyt : I have not heard from you for a week — I hope that my 
old friends — if I ever had any — which I begin to doubt — will not forget 
what I have heretofore done, or what I may do. Do let me hear from 
you again for good and all, at least. 

I am, dear Sir, yours, &c. 

J. G. Bennett. 



August 16, 1833. 
My dear Sir: I have not answered yours of the 3d, for various 
reasons. Among other reasons, I was quite too much provoked with 
you. It appears at the moment I was trying to favor you, the Penn- 
sylvanian was taking such a course as was calculated to thwart all my 
efforts. There are but very few of our people, comparatively, that see 
your paper, and they have to look for its character to the party jpapers here- 



163 POLITICAL ADVICE. 

And what does the Post and Standard say of it? I am not going to set 
myself up as a judge to decide who or which is the aggressor ; but I 
admit that an intelligent newspaper, edited any where in this country, 
ought to know that the Northern Banner and the Doyleslown Democrat are 
papers substantially hostile to the administration ; but because it was 
not known to some of our " corps editorial," it was no reason why you 
should quarrel with all of us — by which I mean all the prominent Jack- 
son papers, from the Argus down. There is a wonderful coincidence 
between the course the Pennsyhanian threatens to take, and that taken 
by the Courier and Enquirer when it first began to secede from the 
Jackson ranks. It began, you will recollect, by assailing what was called 
the "Money Changers." You are about to commence "No. 1, New 
York Stock-Jobbing, &c, &c, and certain expresses in the fall of 1832." 
This has all been published in the opposition papers, and they did not 
make much of it ; and therefore I should doubt whether a Bona fide 
Jackson paper could do better with it. If this was intended for Mum- 
ford, I could tell you reasons for letting him alone ; if for Mr. Hone, 
there are similar reasons ; but as he is no friend of mine, I speak only 
from general principles — there is nothing to be gained by it — it mends 
nobody's principles, or improves the morals of any one ; but rather helps 
your enemies in their efforts to satisfy others that you are not a "reliable 
man," as the phrase is. The Post this afternoon, no doubt will call you 
hard names for associating " vinegar," with the complacent countenance 
of my excellent and amiable — aye, amiable friend, Croswell. Doctor 
Holland, of the Standard, will rewrite the same idea for to-morrow 
morning. All this is quite ridiculous on all sides ; but you will per- 
ceive it is the worse for you here — because the people read but one side, 
and that is the side against you. 

I suppose you think it is time to have the moral of my tale, and it 
is this — that I can get no one to join me in rendering any aid, and my 
means alone are wholly inadequate to render you any relief, and what I 
have written you is but the essence of the arguments that have met me 
at every turn. 

You have heard me talk to Webb, by the hour, of the folly of his 
being on the face of the record a friend of Mr. Van Buren's and at the 
same time attacking his most firm and consistent friend, viz : the editor 
of the Argus ; and you stand in almost the same attitude, and there are 
many here who believe that your friendship will end as Mr. Webb's has. 
I will do you the justice to say, that I believe no such thing, but at the 
same time I will exercise the frankness to say, that the course of your 
paper lays you open to the suspicion. I know enough of affairs to know 



LOVE YOUR PERSECUTORS. 169 

that you had high authority for the ground you have taken on the 
deposit question, and I thought you managed the subject well for the 
meridian you are in. I was told by a person, a day or two since, that 
you would be aided from another quarter ; I could not learn how. But 
you ought not to expect my friend at the North to do any thing, not that 
he has an indisposition to do what is right, or that he would not serve a 
friend, but he is in the attitude that requires the most fastidious reserve. 
The people are jealous of the public Press, and the moment it is attempt- 
ed to be controlled, its usefulness is not only destroyed, but he who 
would gain public favor through its columns is quite sure to fall. I am 
satisfied the Press has lost some portion of its hold upon public confi- 
dence ; recent developments have had a tendency to satisfy the people 
that its conductors, or many of them, at least, are as negotiable as a pro- 
missory note. This impression can only be removed by a firm adherence 
to principle in adversity as well as prosperity. I can, my dear sir, only 
say, as I have before said to you, be patient, " love them who persecute 
you." You have a great field before you, and it is impossible but you will 
succeed, if you are, as I think you to be, honest, intelligent and industrious. 

Truly yours, 

J. Hoyt. 
N. B. The Branch Bank sent their " card " to-day to the banks in 
Wall Street for $200,000 in specie. 



Philadelphia, Aug. 16, 1833. 
Dear Hoyt : Your letter amuses me. The only point of conse- 
quence is that conveying the refusal. This is the best evidence of the 
deadly hostility which you all have entertained towards me. It explains, 
too, the course of the Standard and Post, in their aggressions upon me ever 
since I came to Philadelphia. The cause for such a feeling in the breasts 
of those I have only served and aided at my own cost and my own sacri- 
fice, puzzles me beyond example. I can account for it in no other way 
than by the simple fact that I happen to have been born in another coun- 
try. I must put up with it as well as I can. As to your doubts and 
surmises about my future course, rest perfectly easy — I shall never aban- 
don my party or my friends. I'll go to the bottom sooner. The assaults 
of the Post and Standard, I shall put down like the grass that grows. I 
shall carry the war into Africa, and " curst be he who cries hold, 
enough." Neither Mr. Van Buren and the Argus nor any of their true 
friends will or can have any fellow feeling with the men — the stock-job- 

8 



170 THE BIG GUN. 

"hers — who for the last two years have been trying to destroy my charac- 
ter and reputation. I know Mr. Van Buren better — and I will stand up 
in his defence, as long as he feels friendly to me. I will endeavor to do 
the best I can to get along. I will go among my personal friends who 
are unshackled as to politics, or banks, and who will leave me free to act 
as a man of honor and principle. So, my dear Hoyt, do not lose your 
sleep on my account. I am certain of your friendship, whatever the 
others may say or do. I fear nothing in the shape of man, devil, or 
newspaper — I can row my own boat, and if the Post and Standard don't 
get out of my way, they must sink — that is all. If I adhere to the 
same principles and run hereafter as I have done heretofore, and which I 
mean to do, recollect it is not so much that " I love my persecutors " as 
that I regard my own honor and reputation. Your lighting up poor 
Webb as a fat tallow candle at one end, and holding him out as a beacon 
light to frighten me, only makes me smile. Webb is a gentleman in pri- 
vate life, a good-hearted fellow, honorable in all his private transactions 
as I have found him, but in politics and newspapers a perfect child — a 
boy. You will never find the Pennsylvanian going the career of the 
C. and E. That suspicion answers as a good excuse to those who have 
resolved beforehand to do me all the injury they can, but it will answer 
for nothing else. I am, dear Hoyt, 

Yours truly, 

J. G. Bennett. 
P. S. The $200, [000 ?] in specie I'll put into my big Gun and give the 
U. S. Bank and stock-jobbers a broadside. I wish you would let me 
know any other U. S. Bank movement in your city. This is the battle 
ground of Bank contest — here is the field of Waterloo. New York now 
is only the Pyrenees. 

Beyond the information gleaned from these letters, the files 
of the several journals alluded to show that there was a deter- 
mination on the part of some busy politicians to break up Mr. 
Bennett's prospects. Upon the Deposit Question, the Penn- 
sylvanian had much to say; and the articles on the subject 
were extensively copied. This excited the party politicians, 
and they assailed the Editor with a vehemence that threatened 
him with annihilation. 

The Washington Globe turned, too, upon Mr. Bennett, and 
placing his name in full at the head of an article, read him out 
of the party, so far as it had the power to do it. 



SACRIFICED BY THE PARTY. 171 

This conduct on the part of the partisans of Mr. Van Buren 
was very remarkable ; and it seems now that Mr. Bennett was 
feared by those who were attempting to rule the elections. 
Certain it is, that Mr. Bennett was injured by the course that 
was adopted, and his property in the JPennsylvanian made of 
little value to him by this effort to destroy his political in- 
"fluences. 

In the whole affair, Mr. Bennett seems to have conducted 
with the strictest propriety. He had reason for being angry 
with his political comrades, but he did not, in revenge for this 
contumely, assail the party to which he belonged. He bore 
all the assaults with becoming patience, well assured in his own 
mind that a day might come when he " could settle differences" 
in a way of his own. 

In 1845 the " McKenzie Disclosures," of which more anon, 
brought forward some of these letters which have been recit- 
ed ; and an attempt was made to represent that the " two 
hundred dollars in specie " was money received by Mr. Ben- 
nett as a bribe for some political service. This was absurd ; 
for Mr. Bennett evidently intended to reply, in a postscript, to 
the allusion made by Mr. Hoyt in his postscript, as seen above. 
The three ciphers on the right of the two hundred were omit- 
ted — evidently in the haste of composition — by Mr. Bennett. 

Yet this was one of the charges which politicians used as late 
as 1845 to affect the character of the Herald and its Editor. 
Now, any one may perceive at a glance, that there was nothing 
cringing, unmanly, or mean, in any one of the circumstances 
connected with Mr. Bennett's position. He needed a loan, and 
he applied to Mr. Hoyt to get it for him. That gentleman 
failed to obtain it, and it was procured from friends of Mr. Ben- 
nett who were attached to neither of the political parties. His 
object in procuring it was a fair one. He had undertaken to 
support Mr. Van Buren for the Presidency — had bought a por- 
tion of a paper to secure the end he had in view — and was 
anxious, by purchasing a still larger interest in the Pennsylva- 
nian y to have the sole control of its editorial columns. Nothing 
unreasonable is seen in all this — nor is there found any direct 

■ 



172 RETRIBUTION IN STORE. 

animosity towards Mr. Van Buren or his friends in consequence 
of his disappointment. 

Even in 1836, Mr. Bennett will not be found in opposition to 
Mr. Van Buren. He did not interfere with the election, but 
devoted himself strictly to the interests of his independent 
journal. That he was disgusted with the conduct of his politi- 
cal allies cannot be doubted. He learned what others, too, had 
learned before him, that there is little sincerity in political 
tactics, and that he who attempts to take high ground for the 
welfare of his country, frequently is ostracised if he will not 
become the pliant tool of those who direct the machinery of 
elections. There was retribution, however, in store for some 
of the corrupted politicians of the time, and they have learned 
a lesson of caution, by unjustly attacking a man who was 
struggling industriously, and honestly, as now appears, to carry 
out the democratic principles which he had adopted, and which 
he has not abandoned — but who was doomed to be injured by 
the very men whose prospects he was advancing. He finally 
withdrew from the Pennsylvanian — duped at considerable pecu- 
niary cost, too, by the Whigs, and no longer was known as a 
party politician. 

Perhaps there is no point in Mr. Bennett's life that is more 
interesting than that which ensued upon his leaving Philadel- 
phia and returning to New York. If he fully realized the 
secret of his misfortunes as a political journalist, this epoch was 
still more important to him, as he reflected upon the course 
which it was wise for him to adopt for his future guidance. 

Mr. Bennett was in a peculiar position. The slumbering 
opinion that had been entertained by many of the democratic 
politicians for several years, with respect to his value as a jour- 
nalist for the party, was divulged by the circumstances in Phi- 
ladelphia. They feared the man. They rejoiced in his sacri- 
fice. They did not regret that the blow was struck out of New 
York, where it had been proposed to strike it, even before he 
abandoned the Courier and Enquirer, about the time that he 
was corresponding with Jesse Hoyt from Albany in 1829. 

Why Mr. Bennett was either doubted or feared, it is not easy 



A COMPLIMENT. 173 

to determine, uniess much of this state of feeling is to be attri- 
buted to the fact that he was a foreigner — for it is impossible to 
discover any act, or the semblance of one, that seems to give 
any justification for an opinion adverse to Mr. Bennett's politi- 
cal integrity, unless it may be believed that he was aiming for 
his own political advancement in his course with respect to the 
democratic party. 

That it was a common feeling with several persons to doubt 
him is known to be the case, and the proof of it is clear enough, 
perhaps, from the manner in which his applications to his 
political associates were treated. However, all this appears to 
have been quite gratuitous, though not very singular, for politi- 
cal machinery is very dangerous to some minds — and particu- 
larly to such as will not sacrifice everything to its demands and 
exigencies. There are few political organizations which do not 
take the liberty of proscribing men who are strict devotees to 
principle. They are always deemed to be dangerous. The 
pliant tool is a boon — but the unyielding mind is a terrible 
infliction. 

As far as can be ascertained, Mr. Bennett had excited preju- 
dices of a permanent character in New York in consequence of 
his independence. It is said that he would not write in a 
servile manner, at the dictation of those who were endeavoring 
to guide the party, and this gave great offence, and excited 
apprehensions unfavorable to him. This was what made him 
" unreliable " — and this is what Mr. Hoyt means to convey in 
his letters, addressed to Mr. Bennett in 1833, for Mr. Hoyt well 
knew that this feeling existed, and that it was expressed, 
whenever the proposition was made to aid Mr. Bennett's enter- 
prise in Philadelphia. 

Now if it be correct to say that this was the chief source of 
the hostile feeling towards Mr. Bennett, it is a compliment to 
him as a man and a citizen, whatever politicians may think 
about it. Certainly, this theory is justified by his subsequent 
course for a long period. Many men would have revenged 
themselves upon the politicians who stabbed so recklessly, but 
Mr. Bennett did not rush headlong to do injury. He 



174 WOUNDED PRIDE. 

did expose, it is true, in a series of powerful letters, published 
in the Philadelphia Inquirer, in 1834, certain tricks of the 
" Kitchen Cabinet," at the same time that he justified his own 
course as manly, independent* incorruptible, and patriotic ; but 
he was forced to do this, by those who compelled him to 
withdraw from the Pennsylvanian, which, while' under his 
control, could not be made the mere organ of their will 
and dictation. His letters were accompanied by evidence 
that proved his integrity to the party and to his friends, 
while it was adverse to his enemies. He entirely routed 
them. 

With what results Mr. Bennett waited for a turn in the tide 
will be seen in the remaining chapters of this work, which will 
show the power of a single mind — unaided by anything but its 
own confidence, its own inherent wealth in energy, in industry, 
and in zeal — to create the most powerful engine for an influence 
upon public opinion in all the relations of society known to 
the American continent. 

Mr. Bennett's pride had been wounded by the course which 
his political associates had adopted to crush his prospects in 
life, and he will be seen setting about a work of vast magnitude, 
in a very singular way, to humble every one of those persons, 
whose ungrounded suspicions and heartless acquaintanceship 
had deprived him of the accumulation of years, and came near 
robbing him of every desirable prospect as a journalist. 

Before the year 1833, Journalism, literary, commercial, or 
political, had been weak and unsystematized. The falsest 
estimates were placed upon the efforts of men in every depart- 
ment of letters. A few cliques ruled the whole country, and 
everything that emanated out of the limits of these was liable 
to be consigned to oblivion. One cannot but smile at the 
extravagant praises lavished upon writers and orators who 
are now almost forgotten, or whose works are oftener alluded to 
than read — men who had the public journals in their hands, 
and by means of them played their unjust games with the 
aspiring minds of the nation. In the political ranks, there 
were a large class of men whose deeds have been recorded in 



THE HOUR AND THE MAN. 175 

their official acts, and whose characters are the ablest comments 
upon the history of those times. 

A new condition of things, however, was on the eve of esta- 
blishment. Society was about to undergo a vast change in all 
its relations to men and measures. The power of the Press 
was about to exhibit itself under a new aspect, and with a force 
so far increased as to attract not only the attention of Ameri- 
cans but of the whole civilized world. Around the old order 
of things stood ambitious young men ready to spring into the 
arena of life with the zeal belonging alone to youth, and pre- 
pared to try their strength in competition with those who for 
many years had guided the people, wholly undisturbed except 
by their political opponents. 

A more fortunate position of circumstances cannot be imagin- 
ed than that whieh presented itself for Mr. Bennett's talents at 
this period. He had been moulded by events and experience 
to take a part in the change which the Press was about to 
undergo. It was not enough for a man to be merely a literary 
adventurer, in order to prosper at such a moment. It was 
necessary that he should be m stimulated by something more 
than the mere love of gain. It was requisite that all the 
energies of his nature should be put in action. 

Mr. Bennett was prepared in every way for the occasion. 
He had been just so far injured as to urge him to take hold of 
the world with but little mercy for its foibles, and with so little 
regard to its opinions, that he could distinguish himself by an 
original course in Journalism. He felt as Byron did after the 
Scotch Heviewers had embittered his soul by their harsh treat- 
ment of his " Hours of Idleness." This was a mood highly 
favorable to the production of a rare effect. The dormant spirit 
of the people could only be awakened by something startling 
and novel, and eireumstanees had produced a man for the 
times. There were other persons unfitted by temper, or by 
an ambition too lightly sharpened for the period, to make the 
necessary demonstration in behalf of the Penny Press, and 
they failed, with all their talent and zeal, to establish any per- 
manent influential newspaper, that was universal in its charac- 



176 MAGAZINES AND JOURNALS. 

ter, and calculated to interest every class of society. Mr, 
Bennett only had trie incentives to exertion, together with 
the requisite skill and experience, to take advantage of the 
promise of the hour. It will he seen how he proceeded, and 
under what difficulties he persevered, to hring ahout the end 
which he plainly must have seen in the distance. That he did 
see it, may he inferred from the fact that he has never swerved 
from the plan he then embraced. 

The condition of the literary periodical Press in 1833 should 
not he forgotten at this point, for together with the newspaper 
Press it was ahout to undergo very great changes. The 
Knickerbocker Magazine was commenced in January of this 
year, and had as contributors some of the most popular writers 
in the country. It was issued at a time when there was little 
or no competition, and yet it advanced but slowly in public 
favor. The North American Magazine, edited by the poet 
Fairfield, was commenced at Philadelphia about a year before, 
and failed to give an adequate support to the gifted mind that 
conducted it. The Saturday Courier of Philadelphia, a family 
paper, was more popular than any other literary journal in the 
country, and was widely circulated throughout the United 
States. The delicate pages of the New York Mirror, by 
extraordinary efforts, had to be forced by its proprietor upon 
public attention, while the weekly Press of Philadelphia threw 
its cheap sheets into every town and village. 

The European letters of N. P. Willis — the most elegant and 
versatile author of the day — were valuable, however, to its cir- 
culation, for public curiosity had been aroused to read with 
avidity the productions of a young man who had been so base- 
ly abused by the Press, after he had achieved a fame second 
to that of no man in the ranks of American authorship. 

There was not, beyond these few papers of a respectable 
character, a single firmly established literary journal in the 
whole country, and those which were published were short- 
lived, partly from the fact that the public taste would not sup- 
port them, and partly from another very grave circumstance — 
a general indifference on the part of the people to pay for the 



APPROACHING CHANGES. 177 

journals for which they subscribed ! The subscription books 
of many establishments which have failed, show thousands of 
dollars charged against careless debtors, whose punctuality in 
paying for the papers which they consumed, would have sus- 
tained many a literary gazette and magazine, and have saved 
many a publisher from bankruptcy. 

The thoughtful mind may be surprised to-day that such was 
the condition of public taste twenty years ago, when compared 
with the present interest in periodical literature, when Harpers' 
Magazine issues over a hundred thousand copies monthly, 
when Putnam's Magazine almost rivals that in circulation, and 
when many of the largest cities can boast of literary journals 
and magazines firmly established. In Boston there are, among 
others, Bailouts Dollar Magazine, Bailouts Pictorial, the TVa- 
verley Magazine, the American Union, the Yankee Blade, all 
widely circulated and very profitable. In New York, besides 
those already named, are a dozen of somewhat similar charac- 
ter, which are well supported. Among these the Home Jour- 
nal stands conspicuous from its fashionable tone and courtly 
style. In Philadelphia, Godey's Lady's Book and Graham's 
Magazine are as familiar as the moon, and around them are 
many stars in the literary horizon. Even in California, the 
Pioneer has a firm foundation, and cuts its way into the most 
benighted regions. Of English re-printed periodicals there is 
a large list also. 

Whence has arisen this change in the periodical literature of 
the country within the last twenty years 1 It may be answered 
that it has sprung from the establishment of the Penny Press, 
and from the influence of the Cash prices which Mr. Bennett 
has adhered to from the commencement of the Herald, over 
which he presides in so original and yet so powerful a manner. 

It is not well, however, to anticipate events too rapidly, 
The reader should examine the history of the Penny Press 
and he will then be prepared to draw his own inferences from 
the facts with which he will become familiar. 



173 THE PENNY PRESS. 



CHAPTER XIII 



The Penny Press is a gigantic institution in 1855. It may- 
be conceded that Dr. Horatio David Sheppard, in 1832, be- 
lieved in the practicability of publishing a newspaper at one 
cent a copy. He was a worthy man, voluble in his sugges- 
tions, and not inactive in his efforts to try the experiment ; but, 
by following the advice of others, and publishing the Morning 
Post, on the first day of January, 1833, at two cents, contrary 
to his own faith, he relinquished the right to be called the 
Father of the Penny Press. He saw that paper fail in twenty- 
one days — and his experiment untried ! It is unquestioned 
that he originated the thought ; yet how many other persons may 
have entertained the same one, as early as he, it is impossible 
to state. No good thought exists solely in a single brain. 
There are laws of mind — perhaps of matter — which do not 
permit any man to be esteemed the sole possessor of a thought, 
except he can prove it by an expression of his mind in a tan- 
gible form. He who elaborates his thought into a deed is the 
true inventor — the real philanthropist. No man does his duty 
fully to himself, to his species, or to that Power who imparts 
mental gifts, who does not use means, in spite of all obstacles, 
to fashion the real out of the ideal. 

Who was the Father of the Penny Press, then ? The Sun, 
price one cent, was issued in the city of New York, on the third 
day of September, 1833. For a whole year prior to its advent, 
Benjamin H. Day — in 1855, an intelligent publisher, of Beek- 
man Street, and a wealthy man — contemplated such an enter- 
prise. In 1829, having with him several printers as partners, 
he had commenced the Daily Sentinel, an evening paper, price 



THE SUN NEWSPAPER, 179 

eight dollars per annum. Among these were Willoughby 
Lynde and William J. Stanley, subsequently proprietors of 
the second penny paper, the Transcript. The Sentinel finally 
passed into the hands of George H. Evans, then printer and 
publisher of the Working Man's Advocate. Mr. Evans had 
some ability as a writer, but had no skill in business. In 1832 
he was advised to make a one cent paper of the Sentinel, by 
Mr. Day, who frankly told his own views, and stated the pro- 
babilities of success. The latter was then a master printer, in 
William Street. Mr. Evans did not perceive the feasibility of 
these plans, but reduced the price of his paper, which soon 
disappeared from the public eye, to five dollars per annum. 

As early as 1832, Mr. Day procured the column rules for the 
Sun, and the name of the paper had been decided upon in the 
autumn of that year. William M. Swain then lived under 
Mr. Day's roof, and, though he was subsequently one of the 
originators of the penny Philadelphia Public Ledger, he could 
not be persuaded to take an interest in Mr. Day's proposed 
paper. Mr. Swain soon left New York for the West, although 
he subsequently returned to become foreman of the Sun office, 
for. a year or more — his views on the establishment of a penny 
paper having discouraged Mr. Day not a little. The printing 
business increasing, the founder of the Sun was induced to post- 
pone the execution of his favorite project till the end of the 
summer of 1833, when printers had little to do, so little that 
Mr. Day himself occasionally assisted as a compositor on the 
Mercantile Advertiser, where he had a* friend, A. S. Abell, a 
regular compositor of that establishment. Mr. Abell was a man 
whose opinions usually were valuable, and to him Mr. Day 
unfolded his designs, when his friend laughed and joked at the 
absurdity of the proposition. 

The march of years will change the opinions of men, in spite 
of their attempts to be consistent with early prejudices and 
opinions. Mr. Abell to-day is a man of wealth, realized from 
the very idea at which he scoffed. He is one of the proprietors 
of the Public Ledger, and also of the Baltimore Sun, of which 
he is the sole director. 



180 POLICE REPORTS. 

Mr. Day's usual "business becoming less and less profitable, 
lie determined to issue the Sun. He knew that mucli labor 
and the strictest economy would be requisite to make it suc- 
cessful. He engaged a stranger, Mr. Benton, as a paragraphist. 
but be was not equal to tbe task, though stimulated by a con- 
ditional arrangement. Mr. Day, alone, then edited tbe paper. 
See him now placing tbe foundation of the most gigantic institu- 
tion known to civilization — one that has swayed the people of 
the New World, and which eventually will move the chief na- 
tions of Europe. He commences his work at daylight — takes his 
news from the large morning papers, and has it ready for his 
apprentices. At nine o'clock the forms of type are on the 
press, at which each person in the office, in his turn, works. 
The circulation, in a few days, increases. A thousand copies 
are wanted ! A competent pressman is engaged — and the 
experiment is having a fair trial, Mr. Benton working only upon 
the types. Mr. Day meets James Gr. "Wilson, the foreman of 
the office of the Evangelist, afterwards a partner with him in 
the publication of the Brother Jonathan, and other publications 
— a man of sense, heart, and enterprise. He recommends 
George W. Wisner as suited to fill the place of editor and 
assistant. Mr. Wisner accedes to proposals made. Mr. Benton 
retires entirely from the office, relinquishing, for a small consi- 
deration, all prospective benefits. Mr. Wisner may be the man 
desired ! Mr. Day tries him for a few weeks, and then forms a 
partnership. Mr. Wisner writes the Police Reports. They 
are somewhat of the style and coarseness used by the London 
Times, originally, to obtain readers. The public seek them. 
The paper must now be printed in the night, and all through 
it, to supply the people ! The partners are at their office at 
three o'clock in the morning, to count and deliver to the pur- 
chasers the established Sun ! 

In 1855, a system of distributing newspapers, periodicals, 
pamphlets, and books, is known to society. This originated at 
the office of the Sun. Thousands of persons have reaped em- 
ployment and profit from the introduction of an improvement 
upon the old mode of distributing newspapers to subscribers 



NEWSPAPER DISTRIBUTORS. 181 

only, by persons hired by the week. Ample, and even large 
fortunes, have been made by those boys and men who fol- 
lowed the example given in the distribution of the Sun, and 
afterwards increased by the Herald into a grand system. 
Many extensive publishers, several wealthy farmers, one or 
two holders of large portions of real estate, were, at first, news- 
paper distributors, in some of the large cities of this country. 
Another chapter will contain the principal facts connected with 
the vast change wrought in the book-publishing trade. 

Newsboys are unknown in 1833. At the steamboats, the 
newspaper carriers are finding that they can sell a few copies, 
at six cents each — probably to hungry politicians, who are 
hurrying away to Albany or to Washington ; or, perhaps, to 
merchants who wish to see the ship news, or the prices current 
— and the publishers will print, for the carriers, only a few 
extra copies. It is quite uncertain if the papers can be sold, 
even if they contain libels on the President, or his family, or on 
a score of politicians. A first rate murder, well described, may 
make the sale of a hundred copies quite possible ! These car- 
riers will not touch the Sun. What ! at a cent % It is too 
small a business. 

Men live in this world to learn ; and often find that oaks 
spring from acorns. Mr. Day will demonstrate this. He ad- 
vertises for boys to work by the week. He has six or eight 
of them engaged, at two dollars a week, to distribute the Sun 
of September the third. Each one goes out to sell one hundred 
and twenty -five copies, in a designated district, which is not to 
be deserted during the day, unless the papers are all sold. 
There are several active boys in the squad. They have been 
gone two or three hours, and have not a paper on hand. Mr. 
Day compliments these with more copies, at nine cents a dozen. 
Two or three of the boys now earn five dollars in a week. 

Pigeons will find grain, and men will discover where money 
is made. Mr. Southwick is the carrier-pigeon now. He has 
been earning four dollars every week as a distributor of a com- 
mercial paper, a copy of which occasionally he sells for sixpence. 
If a boy can earn, he reasons, five dollars a week, on Mr. Day's 



182 WILLIAM H. ATTREE. 

plan, he himself, being a man, can earn more. He may obtain 
subscribers, and distribute the Sun punctually ! He tries. 
Soon he has< six hundred names on his list, and his weekly 
profits, at twenty-five per centum, are nine dollars. Mr. Day 
wishes him to buy the papers, and thus relieve him of any care 
in the matter, offering the papers at two thirds of a cent for 
each copy. Mr. Southwick tries that, and realizes thirteen 
dollars and fifty cents every week. The fame of such good 
fortune brings Samuel Messenger forward, who buys daily, 
paying promptly on delivery, seven hundred copies of the Sun, 
to be sold in the public markets. Mr. Messenger takes another 
step : he organizes the routes in various districts, finds carriers 
for them, buys out Mr. Southwick's interest, and, in less than 
twelve months, routes will be sold each at a bonus of from 
thirty to sixty dollars. In 1836, a route, that is, the right to 
distribute the Sun in a particular district or walk, cannot be 
purchased for less than six or seven hundred dollars, and occa- 
sionally is sold at such a price. 

In the spring of 1834, the daily circulation of the Sun 
amounts to nearly eight thousand copies. Mr. Day and Mr. 
Wisner manage the business and editorial departments, their 
principal compositors being William J. Stanley and Willoughby 
Lynde. They are engaged at a weekly salary of nine dollars, 
as compositors. Mr. Lynde has some taste for writing, and is 
industrious, but he seldom writes for the Sun. Mr. Stanley is 
a steady, useful man. They witness the sudden and splendid 
success of their former partner. They are excited by it, and 
not having learned that something more than ordinary copying 
of another man's business is requisite for a successful rivalry, 
they contemplate the publication of the Transcript. Dr. 
Greene, from Berkshire, Massachusetts, who has been con- 
nected with a short-lived daily paper, published at six dollars a 
year, is a witty writer, and he is selected by the proprietors, 
who have induced Billings Hayward — in 1855, a compositor on 
the Herald — to become a partner with them. At a weekly 
salary of three dollars, William H. Attree, who has been a 
printer in the type foundry of Conner and Cooke, is 



PENNY NEWSPAPERS. 183 

employed as a Police reporter — being facile with his pen, and 
sufficiently indifferent (after the fashion of the press generally, 
of that day) to the feelings of the poor creatures left to its 
mercy. The imitations of the Bow Street Heports are palata- 
ble to the public taste, for the paper sells. Enough ! That 
an innocent man, because he is poor and defenceless, may be 
caricatured, and consigned to the infamy of a day, and even to 
the loss of employment, is of little consequence. The people 
must be amused, in all nations and in every country, sometimes 
by battles of wild beasts, and sometimes by the cutting off of 
human heads by thousands, with the guillotine, till the gutters 
of the public streets are washed with blood ! When man is 
dressed in a little brief authority, why should he not use it % 
The Christian graces should be used only on Sundays, when 
no work is to be performed ! What a thought ! What a 
mystery is society ! The heart of the world is the granite rock ! 

In 1835, the Transcript had a circulation nearly, or quite, 
equal to that of the Sun — but the former gives credit to its 
carriers, and the latter receives cash every morning. The 
circulation of the Sun in the villages and towns near the 
metropolis decreases, falls to about one thousand .copies; 
that of the Transcript, in these places, increases to three or 
four thousand copies. Though a profitable paper, yet after 
the death of Mr. Lynde, it is doomed to decline in value, and 
on the 24th of July, 1839, it ceases to exist. 

Mr. Bennett, in the Herald, at various times, has seemed to 
express an opinion that the Man was the first penny paper 
published. It was not issued till after the Transcript, in 1834, 
and was published by George H. Evans, already noticed. It 
was a radical political paper, and its matter was transferred 
into the forms of the Working Man's Advocate. It was 
published only two or three years. 

A third penny paper was published by Lincoln and Simmons. 
It was called the Morning Star. Mr. Lincoln was a compo- 
sitor in the office of the Courier and Enquirer, and could write 
paragraphs with some ability. The partners were good 
printers, but were soon discouraged. Mr. Simmons is now of 



184 SALE OF THE SUN NEWSPAPER. 

the publishing firm of Swain, Abell and Simmons, of the 
Philadelphia Ledger and of the Baltimore Sun. 

It is to Mr. Day's persistent course that society is to attri- 
bute the consequences now seen in the successful establishment 
of numerous daily newspapers, at low prices, in the large cities of 
the United States. He it was that began to prepare the public 
for a profitable and civilizing habit of reading, which has now 
become fixed and universal. Even slander was slow in sale at 
sixpence ! 

Mr. Day purchased Mr. Wisner's share of the Sun in July, 
1835, for fifty-three hundred dollars, and subsequently, in 

1838, sold the whole establishment to Moses Y. Beach, for 
thirty-eight thousand dollars — eight thousand dollars for the 
materials, and the remainder for the right and good will. The 
paper had a circulation, then, of thirty-four thousand copies ! 
Such was the result of a visionary scheme. 

Mr. Beach faithfully performed his contracts, with the 
exception of satisfying a judgment against Mr. Day for a libel, 
inadvertently not specified in the agreement of sale and pur- 
chase. As Mr. Day fully understood, however, that he should 
not be responsible for any possible debts or liabilities, a breach 
of friendship ensued, though Mr. Beach married one of Mr. 
Day's sisters. At this time H. Hastings Weld, hereafter to be 
named, edited the Sun, and he accepted an offer to edit in 

1839, a new penny paper for Mr. Day — the Morning Dispatch, 
which lived one year. It was intended as an opposition to the 
Sun, but was of too high a character to prosper. It was care- 
fully written. 

The episodes and notes which belong to this portion of the 
narration must come in hereafter, if they should serve to 
illustrate the true characters of those connected with the News- 
paper Press, many of whom patiently having stood in the 
smoke and fire of unnumbered libels and misrepresentations 
issuing from the secular, the religious, and the country press, 
are still alive, surrounded by happy families, and enjoying the 
respect of those who know them best. As the most eventful 
step in the career of Mr. Bennett is about to be designated and 



THE STORY AND MORAL. 1S5 

described, the careful reader will have been prepared to glean 
the coming story and moral, in all its force and pungency. It 
will not be the fault of the materials, if the narrative and 
illustrations prove not entertaining and instructive. 



186 



THE NEW YORK HERALD. 



CHAPTER XIV, 



In 1834, two young printers, Messrs. Anderson and Smith, 
established a press-room and printing-office in Ann Street, 
where they did the press-work for the Transcript and the Sun. 
During the summer of that year, Mr. Bennett returned to New 
York from Philadelphia, and applied by letter to Messrs. Day 
and Wisner for an interview. He had plans which he thought 
would be important to them and the circulation of their paper. 
Mr. Day knew well the experience and ability of Mr. Bennett 
as a journalist, and was anxious to engage him at once, but 
Mr. Wisner did not think it prudent to add to the expenses, as 
the public already were satisfied. Mr. Bennett's proposition, 
therefore, was declined. 

In a few months, however, Mr. Bennett — who had no capital, 
except in his aptitude and power as a journalist, in his know- 
ledge of public men, in his familiarity with the history of the 
country, and in his indomitable industry and energy of cha- 
racter — after repeated trials in various directions, succeeded in 
arranging a partnership with Messrs. Anderson and Smith, 
who had opportunities daily, of learning with what avidity 
the penny papers were devoured by the people. They pro- 
cured additional types ; and on the 6th of May, 1835, was 
published by James Gordon Bennett & Co., the first number 
of 

The New York Herald. 

The publishing office was at No. 20 Wall Street, on the 
cellar floor, and almost the entire business was conducted by 
the Editor. The sheet was quite a small one, published at 



FRANCE AND FIGHTING. 187 

one cent. Mr. Bennett prepared the entire contents. He was 
his own reporter of the police cases, of the city news, and 
of the money market. This latter department, as far as the 
American press is concerned, originated with him, and has 
become very important t<£ newspapers. His natural shrewd- 
ness taught him to continue his supervisorship over the 
financial affairs of Wall Street, and he had, it is well known, 
the utmost fearlessness, because he never had any transactions 
in public stocks, those dangerous and exciting instruments of 
hopes and fears — of poverty and wealth. 

He never had bought, sold, or held a share in any of these 
lotteries ; and seems to have abhorred the thought of being 
engaged with those, who, by public economists, are estimated 
as non-producers in society. He had tfo private reason for 
extenuating, or setting down " aught in malice." He wrote 
as he found the facts to justify him. The public began to 
credit him, for his predictions usually were verified, and his 
statements, almost always, were corroborated. They believed 
him, because he did not deceive them. As he expressed it, he 
had " never traded in saltpetre," therefore they believed that 
he told " the truth about France and fighting" — then the grand 
political and financial topic of the hour. He had discovered 
long before this that the only mode of producing a great effect 
upon society is to touch the interests of those who are concerned 
in trade, or in the distribution of money. No revolution ever 
was successful where this principle has been overlooked. 

Mr. Bennett's habits were exemplary. He arose early and 
sat up late, kept his own accounts — posted his own books — 
made out his own bills — and, indeed, it truly may be said, he 
worked for many months more industriously than any other 
editor in the city, collecting more information than any three of 
them combined, could bring together in the same space of time. 

The files of the paper for several weeks, at this period, 
exhibit a strong effort to incite the public to support an agree- 
able, pleasantly written, and comparatively prudish sheet. 
Little can be found in its columns at which even the fastidious 
can carp — or that would not be acceptable to the most refined 



188 



THE FIRE IN ANN STREET. 



public of the present hour. Sprinkled here and there, are the 
same traces of Mr. Bennett's individuality of character, which 
had distinguished his career as a journalist in former years, but 
not much of that which is called endurable arrogance in a liberal 
and powerful mind, or vapid conceit in a small and narrow one. 
The Editor seems prepared to issue a paper that will suit all 
classes of respectable citizens, and which shall not be so 
censurable as many of the principal newspapers have been 
before this epoch — for such it was, as circumstances will have 
proved, when this history is completed. 

The fact that Mr. Bennett was associated with Messrs. 
Anderson and Smith, was not very agreeable to the proprietors 
either of the Sun, or of the Transcript. As soon as possible 
they withdrew their printing from them. The proprietors of 
the Sun purchased a machine to do their own work; and, as 
the circulation increased, Mr. Day added improved machines to 
issue the paper with greater rapidity and dispatch. The part- 
ners of Mr. Bennett saw that they had made a mistake in 
relinquishing a familiar business for a strange one, and privately 
expressed some uneasiness that the Herald did not take the 
position which they had anticipated it would from Mr. Bennett's 
exertions. Besides, they saw that their printing business 
decreased. The arrangement between them and the Editor 
was of such a nature, and so braced by written contracts, that 
they could not break away, though they were disposed to do so, 
and for several reasons, — a principal one was their want of 
physical strength to engage in a speculation so exciting and 
harassing as the publication of a daily paper. The health of 
neither of them was flattering, or likely to be improved. 

The great fire in Ann street, on the 12th of August, dissolved 
the Herald partnership, and, till the thirty-first of that month, 
stayed the progress of the Herald itself, though not that of its 
Editor. The young printers lost their whole establishment, 
including the printing machines, in the conflagration, but were 
insured. Both of them died soon after this event. 

Mr. Bennett called at the Sun office soon after the fire, and 
paid for an advertisement announcing the revival of the Herald. 



THE MOON HOAX. 18S 

It was taken by Mr. Day, who was then sole owner of that 
establishment, and duly inserted on the next morning. No 
jealousy shut out the communication ; and as the circulation of 
the Sun was then twenty thousand copies, no better vehicle for 
announcing the resuscitation of the Herald could be found. 
Subsequently, the Sun and its proprietor received much atten- 
tion from the Herald, in the shape of paper squibs, rockets, and 
bomb-shells, but though the fire was continued for more than 
a year at intervals, it was not answered by the Sun, except in 
random shots. 

Interested parties supposed the attacks were made to obtain 
the notice of the readers of the Sun, and to limit its influence. 
Everybody laughed at the jokes, and some persons enjoyed 
the sarcasm, but those who knew Mr. Day were angry that he 
was treated so severely. They could have been little acquaint- 
ed with the mode in which opposition presses then were wont 
to fight their battles. It was a harmless explosion of ammuni- 
tion, though it made much noise at the time. That Mr. Ben- 
nett was imposed upon by a traitor in the camp, with respect 
to facts, is well known to a disinterested party who watched 
the course of events in a very penetrating, though quiet way. 
It is not necessary, however, to disclose these secrets—yet their 
existence should be a warning to every journalist to suspect 
tale-bearers and tatlers, and, most of all, any one who is false 
to the interests of his employer, of which many a specimen is 
mown to-day. This class of persons, it is quite certain, sur- 
r ived the scenes of 1835, and even of 1845, and will ever live 
rhile the body of society endures. A letter purporting to be 
iddressed by Mr. Day to Frances Wright, was manufactured 
)y one of these persons and given to Mr. Bennett as genuine. 
It was libellous, of course, as forged papers usually are. 

The most prominent topic of a literary character, in 1835, was 
the deservedly celebrated " Discoveries in the Moon," published 
in the Sun. It was written by Richard Adams Locke, then 
the editor of the Sun, but afterwards, in 1837, engaged with 
another person in publishing the New Era — an ably conducted 
journal, eventually bought by politicians, who usually destroy 



190 THE SIXPExNNY PRESS. 

every decent tiling they touch. It purported to be an account 
of Sir John F. "W . Herschel's discoveries at the Cape of Good 
Hope, taken from the " Supplement of the Edinburgh Philoso- 
phical Journal." Its publication was highly important to the 
Penny Press, for it exposed the character and jealousies of the 
Sixpenny Press in a most glaring light. There was a general 
chagrin experienced by the old journals that a penny paper 
should outstrip, in its enterprise or knowledge, the " respectable 
dailies." Great ingenuity was displayed by the author in his 
description of the telescope of Herschel, and much external 
consistency marked his portraiture of the inhabitants of the 
Moon. The people and the editors, generally, received the 
statement as a narrative of truth — and nearly all the editors 
copied and commented on the news from a " cotemporary," 
"small morning paper," "recently established cheap paper," 
or anything else that would keep the Sun out of view. Speci- 
mens of the effect produced by this publication, should be cited. 
The Albany Daily Advertiser said : — 

" We have read with unspeakable emotions of pleasure and 
astonishment, an article from the last Edinburgh Scientific 
Journal, containing an account of the recent discoveries of Sir 
John Herschel at the cape of Good Hope." 

The Daily Advertiser of New York City was exceedingly 
positive on the remarkable honor due to the reputed discoverer. 
It said: 

" Sir John has added a stock of knowledge to the present 
age that will immortalize his name, and place it high on the 
page of Science !" 

The Herald made it a topic for badinage, wit, and ribaldry, 
for several weeks. 

Many men of science were completely deceived by the art 
with which Mr. Locke had concealed his " Stupendous Hoax" 
— and the people began to admit that there was talent employed 
in the editorial department of penny papers ! 

The most amusing incident of all, however, was the remark- 
able action of a very dignified daily journal. It stated on the 
day after the Sun announced these lunar discoveries, that it 



THE REVIVED HERALD. 191 

had received the glowing account of them also, and would 
publish it at the earliest possible moment ! In the little 
editorial room of the Sun there was a general shout of laughter 
at this grave declara^lt^and it then seemed to the Penny- 
Press that it had put its foot/ for the first time, on the neck of 
its unnatural Elder Brother, who was passing himself off for 
more than he was worth, and denying his relationship ! At 
the time, the Sixpenny Press scorned to give credit to their 
smaller neighbors for any item of news. There was even an 
affectation of ignorance, on the part of the old journalists, that 
such papers were in existence. 

The Penny Press was similarly treated in Boston. The 
Boston Herald, commenced by Moses Kimball, now the pro- 
prietor of the Museum in that city, and Henry F. Harrington, 
now a Unitarian clergyman, at Cambridgeport, — and the Times, 
established by George Roberts, its present owner, were seldom 
noticed, and only in derision. 

The Editor of the Herald must not be lost sight of, while 
episodes are indulged in. How is he in his own office ? He 
is not inclined to permit the Penny institution to be repressed, 
or kept in the dark. Gratuitously branded with shame, and 
reproached as it is by the peculiar treatment of those who fear 
the possibility of its eventual influence upon them — upon the 
political parties of the country, upon the commercial and 
financial machinery of the State, and upon society at large, he 
is nerved to make a desperate effort for ultimate success, 
regardless of the artillery which may be brought to thunder at 
his gates and assault his citadel, where he sits the sole magi- 
cian, raising the Herald from its ashes. 

He has had only five hundred dollars with which to lighten 
his labors, but he is found toiling through the summer of 1835, 
with a bolder and more resolute heart, now without a partner 
to aid, with scarcely a friend to cheer him. The time has 
come when to be less than a positive personality will be to 
become nothing in point of influence, and probably in the 
future, a dependent upon the caprices of others. This is his 
feeling ; and while he has a taste for something more elevated 



192 GLIMPSE OF POLITICIANS. 

than the course which his circumstances indicate must be pur- 
sued for the sake of that prosperity which he will pour out his 
life's strength to obtain, yet he cannot follow that track which 
leads to oblivion. He knows the history of those periodicals 
and newspapers which have flashed before the community, and 
perished like the ephemera of summer, and has seen many a 
gentlemanly journalist retire in disgust from the profession. 
To imitate the lustre of the one, or the weakness of the other, 
would be madness. To consign his head, his heart, and his 
pocket to a political cabal, or party, would be to try anew the 
experiment that already has given its solemn lesson and warn- 
ing at Philadelphia. 

Ah, that lesson, and all its circumstances, are deeply 
engraved upon Mr. Bennett's memory ! Ingratitude and 
"Wrong have stamped their burning irons upon his forehead. 
Men far beneath him in intellect, in energy, in honor, in love 
of country, have dared to assail him, even after he himself has 
lifted them into notice, and actually placed them on the high 
road toward public honors. No more will he trust politicians 
and partisans. He has beheld, again and again, the complete 
hollowness, duplicity, and dishonesty of those who organize 
the elements for controlling elections — and. in the deepest 
sanctuary of his bosom, he has resolved not only never to trust 
them more, but if heaven will permit him to do so, to teach the 
very men who have dared to question his integrity and his 
faith, and publicly to mock at him as " a foreigner," and as 
unworthy of an important political trust, that they may yet 
learn that the poor and friendless man, in a free country, may 
arise, by well directed talents, persistency of purpose, and 
steadfast integrity, to a commanding position which they them- 
selves may deem dangerous to their schemes of personal and 
political aggrandizement. 

It is fortunate, in one respect, that many professional poli- 
ticians are so degraded as they are in the scale of honor and 
honesty of purpose. They save young men of brilliant talents, 
by their example, from the terrible sea of political life, which 
every day ebbs and flows with the wrecks of poor impulsive 



THE WEAPONS OF SATIRE. 193 

ambition upon its bosom. Few men of incorruptible principles 
associate with active politicians ; and as the old party lines are 
fast diminishing and disappearing, it is to be hoped that the 
men of barter and of spoils will be less common and noisy, less 
busy and meddlesome than they have been in the past ; that the 
gifts of the government will be distributed, at some future day, 
to those who are worthy of places of public trust, and not alone 
to those who spend their lives in the lazy lottery of chances 
connected with party agitation. Should that- day arrive, its 
advent may be traced to the establishment of the Independent 
Press, the direct origin of which is to be traced to these hope- 
ful, yet difficult efforts which Mr. Bennett makes — that handful 
of fresh seed cast into the ground, to spring up abundantly for 
the desired harvest. 

The improved taste of the present hour will not sanction the 
mode in which Mr. Bennett, at first, undertook to be the censor 
of society ; but a philosophical analysis of the means which 
were used in his peculiar and eccentric course, exhibits motives, 
as the springs of action, which do not necessarily indicate a 
callous heart, or a bad temper. The weapons of the satirist 
are dangerous always, and if they explode in his own hands, 
and hurt himself, he has only to refer the injury to his own 
choice in making use of them. That Mr. Bennett had been 
provoked to use any and all power at his command, to overturn 
the wanton assailants of his character, cannot be denied. He 
had but armed himself with the best instruments heaven had 
bestowed upon him, and his mode of warfare was quite as digni- 
fied as that which had been resorted to and adopted for fifteen 
or twenty years before, by the Press generally. Fighting with 
pens, and even with clubs and pistols, had been common 
enough ; and though he despised every, and any, resort to 
personal violence, he could esteem the old-fashioned custom 
when syringings of ink and paper pellets were the honored and 
traditional usages of duelling between editors. In any event, 
he seems to have been determined not to yield upon the first 
fire, or the fiftieth, but to teach his antagonists that he could find 
as much ammunition as even their combined force could supply, 

9 



194 LITERARY PERIODICALS. 

Among the means used to attract the public to the Herald, 
were some curious ones. Mr. Bennett could not afford at that 
time to launch into great expenses for news. What does he 
do ? Mock special messages of Andrew Jackson and of Gov- 
ernor W. L. Marcy are published from time to time, to convulse 
the people with laughter, and to startle the gaping opposition 
editors, at breakfast, with the thought that their own enterprise 
has been outstripped by the presumptuous innovator. They 
read, see the joke, gradually lose their sense of chagrin and 
mortification, and exclaim, " where will this end 1 " The Edi- 
tor is met by a sober friend, a sedate and matter-of-fact man, 
who would rebuke such trifling with state papers. " Bennett, " 
he exclaims, " what are you about 1 What do you mean to do 1 
When will you be serious !" "I am hard at work — mean to 
make a commercial newspaper for the million, and not for Wall 
street — am always serious in my aims, but full of frolic in my 
means. I must be what Providence intended I should become." 
" What is that 1 " " Heaven only knows, but I feel I must be 
the sum-total of journalism — or a cipher ! Now, reckon me 
up !" 

Thus the work moves on. Money is yet too scarce to permit 
expenses to be made at a great risk. The public is a fickle 
monster — may buy, and may not. Any loss, now, would be 
made up with great difficulty. Still the people must be kept 
wide awake with something. It would not do to say, with a 
wise cotemporary of a former day, " we stop the press to an- 
nounce that there is no news ; and none is expected. More 
anon ! " News must be forthcoming at all hazards, or why 
have a newspaper ! Fiction would not do, then, unless it was 
such as was suggested by the peculiarities and acts of living 
persons. The New York Mirror, the Ladies' Companion, and 
like publications, beautifully printed, and expensively decorated 
with plates and pictures, only dragged along with a feeble ex- 
istence to their end, scarcely vitalized by the literary blood of 
imaginary heroes and heroines — too tasteful for popular use, 
though a little more widely distributed than the more ambitious 
magazines and reviews of the period, one or two of which have 



TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION. 195 

lived till to-day — the Southern Literary Messenger, North 
American Review, Hunt's Merchants'' Magazine, Knickerbocker 
Magazine, and a very few other similar works, all more or less 
obscured by the fragments of very cheap fiction and folly, 
native and imported, which sweep with every tide, and in in- 
creased masses at every moon, over the ocean of literature. 

The year 1835 furnished many topics of a political character 
for the public journals, but the Herald was seldom earnest in 
discussing them. The attempted assassination of President 
Jackson by Richard Laurence, an insane Englishman; the 
French Spoliations Bill, the Bill for the establishment of 
Branch Mints at New Orleans, and in Georgia and North Caro- 
lina, the Distribution of the Public Land Revenue Bill, the 
non-payment of the French Indemnities, the aspect of the 
Twenty-fourth Congress, the memorials and petitions for the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the circulation 
by mail of Abolition documents, the debates in the Senate of 
the United States on the resolution to expunge from the 
records of the Senate the resolution of March 2Sth, 1834, 
namely, " that the President (Jackson), in the late executive 
proceedings in relation to the Public revenue, has assumed 
upon himself authority and power not conferred by the consti- 
tution and laws, but in derogation of both," were exciting un- 
common interest in political, social, literary, and scientific circles. 

Animal magnetism was reviving under the auspices of a 
Frenchman, Charles Poyen, and Miss Gleason, the former 
writing and lecturing upon the subject. Few persons esteemed 
it as anything less than a cheat. No rational man now doubts 
the phenomena it presents. Phrenology, too, was making 
rapid advances. Mr. Bennett doubted it, as he diol Mesmerism. 
0. S. Fowler, who in 1832, while at college, had studied it 
diligently and practically, established himself in Clinton Build- 
ing in New York, and built up the establishment now known 
as that of Fowlers and Wells, Broadway. Lecturers on 
phrenology frequently visited the rural districts, and the study 
gained many adherents. Its general features are now univer- 
sally admitted, and the system of Dr. Buchanan of Cincinnati is 



195 MUSIC AND THE DRAMA. 

superseding that of Spurzheim, Gall, and Combe, in the minds 
of many lovers of psychology. 

This year was distinguished, also, as an important one to 
the interests of the commercial public. It originated that system 
of Express companies now so common and useful throughout 
the land. Mr. Harnden commenced it at Boston, in a small 
way, and out of that germ have sprung the great roots and 
the branches which ramify over the Union, and even into many 
another country. The Adams establishment grew from the 
Harnden -stock, and is quite equal to that of Pickford & Co.'s 
of Great Britain, which in promptitude and despatch is not 
second to the Government Mail Service. A package sent to 
any English port, to Pickford & Co.'s care, will be sure to reach 
its destination. 

In the dramatic world, Mr, and Mrs. Wood, and Mr. Brough, 
continued to excite admiration, and in Boston, Miss Charlotte 
Cushman made her first appearance on the stage, as the 
Countess in the " Barber of Seville," and though well received 
by the public, was treated with almost total indifference by 
the Press. One literary paper, however, in a long and 
elaborate article, encouraged her to proceed. Her voice -was 
a contralto. An attempt was made subsequently to extend its 
register — according to the hateful, unnatural system of the 
modern Homish school of music, and it was ruined. The lady 
was then at New Orleans, and she immediately appeared as 
Lady Macbeth, won applause, and in 1838-9 established her- 
self as a powerful actress by her portraiture of Nancy Sykes, 
Aldabella, and other characters. Mr. and Mrs. Ternan 
(formerly Fanny Jarman), James Wallack, now lessee of Wal- 
lack's theatre, and other persons of histrionic talent from Eng- 
land, added to the attractiveness of public amusements — but 
there was nothing very brilliant in the schools of musical or 
dramatic art. 



T!IE WAR OF JOURNALISM. 197 



CHAPTER XV. 



On the first day of January, 1836, nearly four months after 
the Ann Street fire, Mr. Bennett declared his determination to 
give the Herald, if possible, a universal circulation. He stated 
that he had gone through his difficulties without being de- 
pressed, — continued to make war upon the Wall Street jour- 
nals, although, as he expressed it, he now worked " with 
impaired means, but undying energies of mind and spirit." 
He sneered at the " fears and laughable reprobation of every 
ten dollar paper in Wall Street," adding, " so extremely jealous 
are our old and kind associates of the Courier and Enquirer 
and Evening Star, that they will not exchange with us, one 
of them, for friendship, love, or money." Again, he says, " we 
shall astonish some of these big journals that now affect to look 
down upon us with scorn." Upon the proprietors of the penny 
papers, the Transcript and the Sun, he was particularly severe, 
although in his most serious charges it was quite evident that he 
was rather more playful than malicious. The war of Journalism, 
at this day, if not at its height, yet was so confused, and so 
apparently intense, that the public mind was beginning to be 
directed to everything that appeared in the shape of a news- 
paper. 

One could scarcely pass his neighbor without seeing him 
thrusting one or more of the penny papers into his pocket, 
and the vicinity of the Park, where the papers were issued, 
became a kind of Newspaper Exchange, where men most 
interested in the topics discussed in the journals, held each 
other by the button, to ascertain the merits- of the several 
controversies which arose from time to time. The pecuniary 



198 MATCHES Ax\ T D NEWSPAPERS. 

success of any journal suggested the means by which it was 
accomplished, and not the most charitable suspicions were 
raised against those newspaper proprietors who seemed to be 
gaining ground with the public. Mr. Bennett, up to this 
period, was receiving from the sales and advertisements of the 
Herald, sums sufficient to defray the current expenses of his 
establishment. In his personal habits he was economical, for 
his tastes were refined, without being licentious or voluptuous ; 
and every energy and dollar was consecrated to rear the child 
of his hopes and his determinations. The sheet, however, was 
only about one fourth of its present size, and was issued at 
comparatively small cost. A person at this period, sent com- 
munications to the Herald with respect to the Morris Canal 
Bank, the purpose of which will be understood by glancing at 
the mode in which the Editor replied to him. In those days 
such an article was a novelty. At present, its spirit controls 
the business department of every respectable newspaper. 

" Here is, now, some fellow in Wall Street who has a private 
object in view — the making of a few thousand dollars by 
speculation ; and he asks us to help him to do so, at our own 
expense. If we refuse, he threatens to say ' you are bought 
up.' We tell this patriot, and every other patriot, that we 
have no sort of objection to publish his communications on 
being paid for them, as for any other advertisements. If " M. 
Q." will transmit $15 (for the article will occupy thirty 
squares), we shall publish them with as much fearless- 
ness as we do ' Loco Foco Matches,' ' Dancing Parties,' ' Dr. 
Moffat's Vegetable Life Pills,' or ' Dr. Brandreth's Vegetable 
Universal Pills.' " 

The subjects alluded to in this last extract were popular ones. 
' Loco Foco Matches' came into use with the penny newspapers, 
and, in fact, the progress of matches and newspapers has been 
somewhat analogous. The improvement of one has been 
attended by a corresponding improvement and use of the 
other. The tinder-box went out of fashion in 1825 ; small red 
boxes, containing a bottle filled with acid and cotton, and sur- 
mounted by phosphorized pine sticks, superseded the tin box, 



PILLS AND DANCING PARTIES. 199 

flint and steel. The sale of these, throughout the United 
States, for several years, was universal. The invention was 
French in its origin. Finally, these gave place to something 
similar to the article now in use, made of pine, brimstone, and 
the chlorate of potash, by the manufacture of which several 
match-makers in this country are reaping as great a pecuniary 
harvest as the most successful newspaper proprietors. The 
cheap matches and the cheap newspapers were sold in every 
street. Families before this, had borrowed coals of fire and 
newspapers of their richer neighbors. With the reduced prices, 
each family had a pride in keeping its own match-box, and in 
taking its favorite daily journal. 

In the city, dancing parties were at their height ; other 
public amusements were not as popular as at the present day. 
The amount expended for balls, by the mechanics, wage- 
working, and salaried men, in the winter season, was enormous. 
In proportion to the population, there were more dancing 
assemblies than now. With the exposure to the severities of 
the winter season, came also retribution upon the physical 
frame. Medicines and physicians were in demand. Pills and 
parties seemed to have an affinity. It was not an uncommon 
thing for persons to attend the ball at night, and to take a box, 
or some portion of one, of Moffat's, or Brandreth's pills, in the 
morning. If a person were ill his friend immediately prescrib- 
ed for him ; and thus Dr. Moffat, from being the occupant of 
an humble store in Broadway, became a millionaire, and Dr. 
Brandreth, from a penniless young man, has established himself 
as a senator in the State Legislature, and as a leading capital- 
ist, and a holder of real estate. Both of these men are indebt- 
ed much to the advertisements in the public journals, for 
their success in life ; and many a poor author, for a meagre 
pittance, has written their addresses to the public, which, 
trivial in themselves, were the means of arresting attention and 
creating those immense sales which have resulted in enabling 
the manufacturers of aloes, scammony, and gamboge, to erect 
massive structures of stone, brick, and iron, on our popular 
thoroughfares. 



200 POPULAR MEDICINES. 

In Boston, the " Matchless Sanative" was a rival to the 
popular pills made in New York. It was a homoeopathic 
medicine. One drop was diluted in a tumbler of water, and a 
spoonful of the weak liquid taken as a panacea for the ills to 
which human flesh is heir. The cures were extensive and 
magical. A very large closet was filled with genuine certifi- 
cates of the efficacy of this invention — which was nothing 
more than colored water ! The originators of this German 
discovery were a young physician and an apothecary, who, 
having secured several thousand dollars by the speculation, 
permitted the fame of their wonderful compound to die out. 

In Cincinnati, a year or two after, advantage was taken of 
the popularity of the tomato-plant, to twist, by bold allegations 
its active principles into a substitute for mercury. Dr. Miles 
was the originator, but he soon found a rival in Dr. Phelps of 
Hartford, Connecticut, and a newspaper war on the compara- 
tive merits of the tomato-pills of each gentleman Avas the 
consequence. In 1839, the newspapers teemed with advertise- 
ments on the subject. Scores of new medicines were intro- 
duced from year to year, in all the large cities, the penny 
newspapers being used as mediums to make known their 
remarkable virtues to the complaining and the dying. Good 
may be educed from evil. Among these popular medicines 
have been some very useful compounds. The many " Pain- 
killers" invented, have diminished largely the amount of 
human suffering, and great relief has been experienced by 
thousands of families from the use of Ayer's Cherry Pectoral — 
the most carefully compounded medicine, for a certain class of 
pulmonary affections, known to medical practice. Its inventor 
resides in Lowell, Massachusetts, whence he sends this medi- 
cine, in large quantities, to every part of the United States, 
and even into foreign countries. In cold latitudes, Dr. Moore's 
Essence of Life was used in 1825, for coughs, by families not 
disposed to employ the services of a physician, and was 
exceedingly popular, although an expensive preparation. Its 
ingredients are now well known, but it is no longer used as on 
its first introduction to the public. The curative properties of 



FEARLESSiXESS OF THE EDITOR. 201 

popular medicines must be very great, or no amount of capital 
or energy can keep them long before the public. Hundreds of 
thousands of dollars are expended annually, by persons who 
think they will make a fortune, by merely advertising some 
new medicine. It is only such men as Thomas Holloway, 
celebrated in every civilized country for his Pills and Oint- 
ment, and Dr. Morehead, with his magnetic belts, braces, and 
plasters, in addition to those persons already designated, 
who have that indomitable perseverance which makes them 
push their products into the remotest regions. Morehead has 
expended in one year, thirty thousand dollars for the printing 
of his Almanac alone — a free gift to the public. 

There are medicines, also, widely circulated almost entirely 
by private recommendations. The most powerful of these, in 
effecting cures, is the " Cerevisia Anglicana, or English Diet 
Drink." It is a very old medicine, having been used in 
England for about one hundred years, and has been known in 
this country for a long period. It was invented by Dr. Joshua 
Webster, of London. In Dr. Benjamin Franklin's letter to 
Collison, of the Royal Society, he speaks of its remarkable 
properties ; and the celebrated Abernethy states that its 
effects are wonderful. Why such a compound, and a purely 
vegetable one, is not made public, is certainly strange — yet 
thus it is. 

The Press is used extensively, in some cases, horribile dictu, 
editorially, by the proprietors of Patent Medicines, as they are 
strangely called in this country, until the evil is about to be 
checked by a resort to legislation. A bill is now before the 
New York Legislature, making it a penal offence to make or 
vend any medicine, the component parts of which are not 
designated upon the envelope, as has been done, from the 
first, by Dr. Ayer, who thus has secured public confidence, 
and the countenance of the medical faculty. Certainly, the 
people suffer severely from heartless imposition, where they 
rely upon the valuable properties of some of these popular 
compounds ; and the sooner the evil is abated the better will 
it be for society. Most assuredly, the Press should be infiexi- 

9* 



202 PROGRESS OF PENNY WISDOM. 

ble in a determination to give no editorial aid to compounds 
which cannot bear analysis and commendation. 

On the tenth of January, Mr. Bennett was visited by a 
person against whom a complaint had been made, through an 
affidavit, before the police department. The fact had been 
stated. The accused boldly entered the office of the Herald, 
threatening the Editor with chastisement, unless he corrected 
the charge, which had been made. Mr. Bennett was not to be 
intimidated by any fears of a personal attack. His journal of 
the next day repeated that an assault had been made upon an 
unprotected woman by the person in question, and the para- 
graph concluded with " we never saw the man we feared — or 
the woman we had not some liking for." This shows manly 
courage, and also a respect for the beautiful, the weak, and 
the defenceless. 

On the great political topics of the day, the Editor wrote 
briefly and sententiously. The time had not come, when so 
small a paper as the Herald could gain anything by giving 
opinions upon public policy. -There were few readers in the 
country who cared to see such subjects treated in a public 
print. Politicians, alone, consulted public journals on questions 
of commerce, peace, and war, or on the probable effect of any 
measures adopted by the government. The mass of the 
people were contented to be ruled by those, who, through 
interest or ambition, were aiming to obtain place and power. 
The commercial men, in the large advertising sheets, found 
more opinions than they would read, and much matter in 
which they had no interest, as it conflicted not with the opera- 
tions of trade and manufactures. Men of wealth and of posi- 
tion in society, affected to despise the penny wisdom of the 
day. They did not foresee with what giant strides the new 
Institution was moving over the face of the country, eventually 
to sway the intelligence of the whole people. It would have 
been folly, therefore, to have attempted to make a daily offer- 
ing to the public of a newspaper, such as is accepted even at 
the present hour. Mr. Bennett saw this — he felt it. He wrote 
to create an interest, for himself and the Herald. In 4;his he 



CODE OF COURTESIES FOR JOURNALISTS. 203 

was pecuniarily wise, for, had he taken a more dignified course, 
and thus have produced only such studied articles as he had 
contributed to the Courier and Enquirer, from 1829 to 1832, 
the Herald would not have existed for a single month, unless 
sustained by a sacrifice of capital which it was no£ in the 
power of Mr. Bennett to command. All of his success depend- 
ed upon his making a journal wholly different from any one 
that was in existence. His greatest rival was the Sun, and" 
though that was liberally edited, and by gentlemen of talent, 
yet it was written for effect — and therefore was subject to 
criticism. Scarcely a day passed that words were not bandied 
from one paper to the other, in the hope that attention would 
be excited, aud the curiosity of the public increased, by the 
wonderful disclosures of each new issue. A more ridiculous 
state of things cannot well be conceived. How gentlemen 
of talent, taste, and education, could carry on so absurd a 
warfare, for the mere purpose of an ephemeral notoriety, is sur- 
prising. Yet it was done, till every vestige of character 
seemed to be lost to each assailant, though the editors survived 
these daily assassinations and deaths. The public treated 
them only as they do the tragedians, who die at night upon 
the stage, to live the next day, and so on, from year to year. 

As this narrative proceeds, the ultimate effects of such 
questionable chivalry will be discerned. It will be discovered 
that that which originated in mere fun, and in attempts to be 
witty at the expense of a neighbor— and, even at that of a 
sincere friend, terminated in a hostility which became a habit 
reflecting no credit on the Press, and on checking its influence 
upon the public mind. 

It may be said safely, that if harmony had existed 
between the public journals in New York, for the past twenty 
years, the aggregate circulation of the newspapers would be 
double in amount to that which it is to-day. There has been 
no recognition of a profession of journalism. Lawyers respect 
their vocation. So do the clergy, with all their clashing theo- 
logical interests, maintain some public respect for their office 
and position. They treat each other with courtesy and charity. 



204 JANUARY STORM IN 1S36. 

Journalists, too often, like garrulous scolds, attack each 
other, till they either persuade themselves that they are deal- 
ing with brother bandits, or that it is best that society should 
esteem them to be thus despicable. To-day it would be 
impossible for them to meet in one harmonious council, and set 
aside all differences and prejudices, for the common good of 
their class. That a better time is near at hand is evident. 
If they were to meet socially, once a week, for an interchange 
of manly feeling and elevated thought, the Press would take a 
position that it never will hold till this is done, for its code of 
courtesies can only be made in some such way. 

The Herald lost no opportunity, in endeavoring to destroy 
any possible regard there may have been, for the "respecta- 
ble" commercial journals of the metropolis, which avowed 
that the Penny Press was not respectable. Unfortunately, 
the spirit of speculation had engrossed the attention of more 
than one journalist, and the discovery of this fact gave the 
Editor power to make his attacks with some show of reason 
and propriety. The payment of French Indemnities, "the 
squadron of observation" upon the coast — the views of Mr. 
Barton, charge d'affaires to France ; the recommendation of 
President Jackson as to the interdiction of- our ports to the 
entry of French vessels and French products, in fact, the 
whole question connected with our negotiations with France, 
had caused no little pecuniary speculation in public stocks ; 
and the opinions published in one of the journals, said to be 
deeply interested in stock operations, were attributed to the 
desire to affect Wall Street in a particular way. On this sub- 
ject, in commenting upon the course which it was averred had 
been pursued, Mr. Bennett said that such editors were "truly 
unfit by nature and want of capacity to come to a right con- 
clusion upon any subject. They are still more unfit to give 
correct opinions on French affairs in consequence of their 
speculating mania, and deep interest in stock -jobbing. They 
pervert every public event from its proper hue and coloring, 
to raise one stock, and depress another. There is no truth in 
them." Of one of these editors he stated that during the year 



THE SUBSEQUENT CALM. ■ 205 

1835, lie must have been engaged in stock-operations, to the 
amount of half a million. " He was a bear, that is, he sold 
stocks, without perhaps owning a hundred shares. We see 
in the speculations the source of his war cry against France." 

Such remarks as these were not borne with that philosophy 
in Wall Street, which distinguished Mr. Bennett's contempora- 
ries in the more salubrious regions of the Park. They were 
irritating, and were swelling the fountains of wrath which were 
destined to break out with an energy and force not easily to 
be repelled. The day soon came for the public to see this. 

On the nineteenth of January the Herald inserted an 
account of stock operations, signed by Henry Lynch, in which 
certain assertions and implications were made respecting the 
editor of the Courier and Enquirer. On the next day an 
editorial, calculated to aggravate, was issued. Correct taste 
cannot sanction such a proceeding, and Mr. Bennett himself, 
with his enlarged experience, Would now scarcely indulge, it is 
to be hoped, in so severe a style of badinage, even if the facts 
seemed to justify such a publication. However unwise were 
the attacks on Mr. Webb, his own subsequent conduct towards 
Mr. Bennett was of a character which it would have been 
prudent not to have exhibited. The temper of a man, however, 
often subverts his discretion and intelligence, and in all 
such cases the provocation to the feelings is the only apology 
that can be offered for resorting to means which do not appear, 
upon the reflection of a wise man, to have been either necessary 
or judicious. Mr. Bennett was assaulted in Wall Street by 
his former associate, who, after knocking him down, struck 
him with a stick. The Herald subsequently contained the 
following : " I have to apologize to my kind readers for the 
want of my usual life to-day." He then added with respect to 
his assailant that he " by going up behind me, cut a slash in 
my head about one and a half inch in length, and through the 
integuments of the skull. The fellow, no doubt, wanted to let 
out the never failing supply of good humor and wit, which 
has created such a reputation for the Herald, and appropriate 
the contents to supply the emptiness of his own thick skull. 



206 A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

He did not succeed, however, in rifling me of my ideas, as he 
******** He has not 
injured the skull. My ideas, in a few days, will flow as freshly 
as ever, and he will find it so, to his cost." The circulation of 
the Herald containing an account of the fracas was nine 
thousand copies. The promise made in this paragraph, has 
been most faithfully kept, for the columns of the Herald have 
never failed to notice, in a ludicrous manner, the principal 
movements of the popular editor of the Courier and Enquirer, 
and when he called at the Herald office, on two separate occa- 
sions, about four years ago, to see Mr. Bennett, he was denied 
an interview. Had these editors then settled their long 
cherished animosities, more deep before the public, than in the 
heart, it would have been well for both. But Mr. Bennett 
would not yield on either of these occasions. 

This should be understood. On the 3rd of July, 1835, these 
two gentlemen had an interview on the steps of the Astor 
House. It was particularly desired by the editor of the 
Courier and Enquirer, that he should not be noticed in the 
Herald, and some threats were made in case this wish should 
not be complied with. Accordingly, on the 4th of July, Mr. 
Bennett wrote a letter to Mr. Webb, in which he signed his 
Declaration of Independence — stating that he never more would 
communicate with his former associate, and never would 
" sacrifice the honest independence of the Herald to private 
solicitude or private friendship." In one of his editorial 
articles, at this time, he said, " I shall never give up my rights 
— I will never give up my independence." The paper was a 
continued exponent of this determination ; the editor, both in 
trifles and upon grave tropics, ever maintaining the same 
unflinching, undeviating course. He persisted in his attempts 
to destroy the influence of his early associate, and he was 
probably provoked to this by the fact, as he declared it, that 
" almost every paper is neutral, or approves of the ruffianism " 
displayed in Wall street. Of the relations between Mr. Webb 
M%, Bennett, appropriate notices have been made in other 
chapters of this volume. For the present, it is sufficient to 



ESTIMATE OF AN OLD FRIEND. 207 

say that such newspaper attacks as were common fifteen or 
twenty years ago were aggravating enough to provoke 
the temper of any one unless he werj a philosopher, or had 
a very thorough and proper contempt for the columns of a 
public journal, when it departed from the bounds of its 
province. Society has established officers of justice and 
duties for grand juries, and it has not committed the powers of 
indicting and arraigning men to tlie Press, which, when it 
oversteps its mission, becomes frequently District Attorney, 
Counsel, Judge and Jury, and, virtually, the Executioner. 

After the rencontre in Wall street, the Herald continued to 
explain the connexion of its Editor with Mr. Webb. An ex- 
tract or two has an autobiographical interest. 

" When I was associated with Mr. Noah, I was the first per- 
son who gave Webb the idea of uniting the Courier and 
Enquirer, and creating a newspaper that would take the lead 
of every other in the city. Not in possession of capital myself, 
and believing that his family connexions would supply the 
deficiency, he proceeded on the intimation I gave him, and 
purchased and united the two journals in question. I then be- 
came associated with him as an Editor, and he frequently 
solicited me to buy an interest. I soon found, however, that 
from his habits, education, temper, and talents, he was utterly 
unfit to have the control of a newspaper, and that sooner or 
later he would disgrace the press, and destroy his own reputa- 
tion. Yet, having early imbibed a feeling favorable to the 
man, I continued for several years to treat his errors with great 
delicacy, but equal frankness. Possessing personal industry and 
indefatigability, with some talent, for which I am thankful to God 
Almighty, no one in this city can say aught against my private 
character. I can venture to say, that in all the relations of life 
it is without a stain. The benefit of this indefatigability was 
entirely directed to advance the interests of Webb for nearly 
three years. To me he is principally indebted for the success 
and establishment of his paper. I can prove it by docu- 
ments in my possession. Enjoying for many years a friendly 
correspondence with several of the most distinguished men in 



208 A JOURNALIST'S opinion. 

the country, among whom were Martin Van Buren, Vice-Presi- 
dent, and Nicholas Biddle, President of the United States 
Bank, my endeavors, during my connexion with Webb, were 
to benefit his establishment as far as in my power, without 
compromising honor, reputation, and the decencies of life." 

Such a statement as this, let society think what it may of the 
right of Mr. Bennett to make his newspaper a tribunal of 
accusation, was flinging the gauntlet to the ground on the most 
important point then, and since, at issue. It could not be 
asserted that the Editor had done anything base or corrupt. 
He may have erred in judgment. He may have thought that 
boldness was a symbol of independence. He may have delud- 
ed himself with the thought that he had a right to comment, as 
an Editor, upon any man in a public position, and to arraign 
him before the people. He may have construed his power into 
a prerogative, and have been justified, by his own theory of the 
true position for an Editor, in conducting his journal in his own 
way — he alone taking the responsibility. He may have been 
indifferent to any opinion that would make him less distin- 
guished than as the most independent journalist in New York 
— but his moral character was without a blemish, so far as the 
testimony of his friends and enemies, in private, give any clue 
to his true nature and history. Thus did he appear in 1836. 
It will eventually be seen if he can defy accusation in 1855. 

In the Evening Star editorial rooms, as late as 1838, the 
conversation having turned upon Mr. Bennett's character, a 
gentleman connected with that establishment declared that 
though Mr. Bennett often had ridiculed him, he must avow the 
truth, that in his knowledge of the Editor he had learned to es- 
teem him not only as an upright and worthy man, but as the most 
modest one associated with the interests of the Press — that he 
could only account for the apparent sudden and strange change 
in his disposition, by attributing it to a fixed determination to 
prosper in life, and to treat the gay world precisely in accord- 
ance with its own state, spirit, and taste. 

There appears to have been sound philosophy in this. It is 
certain, at least, that the Herald, for many years, was little 



IIOUATIO HASTINGS WELD. 209 

more than a gossiping and reporting newspaper. It was writ- 
ten only for the day on which it was published, and never fully 
up to the capacity of Mr. Bennett, but quite up to the demands 
of its readers. It was made for the public, and the public 
would not support a newspaper of a much loftier tone, as was 
proved by the exit, one by one, of nearly every daily and 
weekly paper that did not cater to the depraved state of pub- 
lic taste. That patient scholar, close student, and industrious 
editor, Horace Greeley, though the best statist on the press, 
gained but Httle notice or attention. He suffered pecuniary 
crucifixion almost every day. William Leggett's high-bred j 
Plain-Dealer was dealt out so scantily as scarcely to be missed 
when it perished. Tasistro's Expositor was born only to expire. 
The daily Dispatch, Tatler, and Evening Signal, though some- 
times not marvellously punctilious in matters of taste, yet on 
the whole, creditably edited and well written, were soon silent, 
leaving the field to the Sun and to the Herald. H, Hastings 
Weld, a gentleman of the most delicate taste, and combining 
within himself great power and a refined discretion, rare quali- 
ties for editorial uses, abandoned the profession of journalism, 
and has been settled as an Episcopal clergyman near Phila- 
delphia. Such a man dignified his vocation. He was neither 
presumptuous nor weak, but wrote for the public good, with 
that rare excellence which both morality and religion approve. 
It is to be regretted that the public taste did not sustain him in 
the daily Dispatch, which was far in advance of its day. For 
a year or two he wrote in the editorial columns of. the Sun, 
where he was humorous without being reprehensible, and witty 
without indulging in personalities. He was truly an inde- 
pendent Editor, and his loss to his original profession has been 
felt, if it have not been heeded. 

On the 10th of April, 1836, Helen Jewett was murdered in 
her bed-room, at a house of ill repute kept by E-osina Town- 
send. This unfortunate young woman, who eight or ten years 
before, in the pride of youth and beauty, could, be seen on 
Sunday taking her customary place in one of the most conspi- 
cuous pews in the broad aisle of the Rev. Mr. Tappan's church, 



210 MURDER OF HELEN JEWETT. 

Augusta, Maine ; step by step had followed those rash impulses 
which are oftener consulted than the lessons of the judgment 
and the conscience. Her career was brilliant, but baneful to 
herself and to her associates. On the 11th of April her name 
was known throughout the metropolis, while her spirit had 
gone forward to meet His mercy who had said, " Let him that 
is without sin cast the first stone." A young man, Richard P. 
Robinson, was accused of the murder, and public opinion was 
against him. For weeks before and during the trial the 
greatest excitement prevailed everywhere in the city, and 
extended far throughout the country. At this juncture, the 
Herald introduced a theory, not without apparent reasons, to 
show the possibility of the innocence of Robinson. It was, 
without dbubt, the unsolicited act of its editor — but from that 
period down to the present time the cry has been iterated, 
again and again, that the columns of the newspaper were pur- 
chased. Moreover, it has been asserted, that the late well 
known proprietor of the Evening Star, Mr. Noah — for many 
years avowedly hostile to Mr. Bennett, — was ready to testify 
that the editor of the Herald had acquired, by threats, thirteen 
thousand dollars from a man who was in the house of Rosina 
Townsend, on the night of the 10th of April. It is asserted, 
besides, that this unknown victim paid this amount of money 
to keep his name from public view, and then committed suicide ! 
The whole story is too ridiculous to be entertained for a single 
moment by any person who has no prejudices to be gratified 
by its entertainment. Any man so solicitous to conceal a folly, 
as to pay thirteen thousand dollars, or even thirteen dollars, for 
security against publicity, must have been insane when he 
told the story, and intensely so when he put an end to his 
life to blot out the history. No ! This narration is too flimsy 
a one to take away character upon. If money to such an 
amount was paid, something more tangible than verbal testi- 
mony or hearsay evidence can substantiate it — and until the 
documents are produced, or some equivalent proofs, the public 
will have the independence to doubt this and every similar 
allegation. If the charge of levying black-mail at this period, 



AN ALLEGATION ANSWERED. 211 

or at any other time, can be justified, and made clear by any 
proof, so as apparently to make out a case against Mr. Bennett, 
his temper and character must be much mistaken by those 
who would look at him with an unjaun diced eye, if he would 
not be happy to meet, as he would be most sure to repel, 
every attack made in this direction. Inquiries followed up, 
year after year, in order to gain, if possible, any reliable 
intelligence that could fix this charge upon the Editor, have 
been made^ and invariably without the least shadow of success. 
The whole subject is one that, for the respectability of the 
Press and for the position of journalists generally, demands a 
strict investigation, and if not this, then silence for ever. The 
Herald surely has not failed to give offence to thousands of per- 
sons, who, with the many journals in opposition to it, would have 
been too happy to have produced the proofs upon which their 
bold inferences and bolder allegations have been made, could 
they have done so. But in this whole community there never 
has been found a single man of probity and veracity who has 
dared to assert that he has paid the Editor for his opinions. 

This subject would not have been introduced here, had not 
publicity been given to the assertion, by the appearance of 
Edward P. Fry's Card to the Public, in the Tribune of 
Febuary 23rd, 1855. Indeed, the allegation never came in a 
tangible, published form, so as to be cited, till it appeared in 
that journal. 

Already had it been replied to, in the manuscript of this 
volume, upon the ordinary suggestions of common sense, when 
the Herald of February 25th, by Mr. Bennett's own hand, dis- 
posed of the matter, by saying that the array of libels had 
now set forth a distinct charge — that the story was " originally 
a pure invention," gotten up and circulated out of jealousy, on 
account of the success of the Herald, and the disappointment 
and failure in business of the Editor's old associate of the 
Evening Star. 

Mr. Bennett expresses himself glad to find the statement 
published under such auspices, and proposes to commence civil 
actions for libel against the parties who have thus attempted 



212 VERBAL CRIMINATION, 

to blacken Ms reputation. He says : " In these trials we shall 
prove a character utterly beyond reproach." 

It is indeed remarkable that this charge should have slum- 
bered for nineteen years, while every week in that time it, or 
something like it, was hinted ; or that a gentleman with so much 
taste and judgment as Mr. Fry possesses, should think that 
his cause of grievance against Mr. Bennett can be assisted by 
the promulgation of such a rumor. Mr. Fry is sympathized 
with by many lovers of musical art in this country, who 
deem genius and enterprise worthy of admiration and encou- 
ragement. As an enlightened operatic manager he enlisted 
in his behalf many minds which sympathize alike with the 
refinements of his taste and with the severity of his fortunes ; 
and, however unsuccessful he may have been in his attempts 
to elevate the condition of music in this country, and to what- 
ever causes he may attribute his ill success, nothing can be 
gained by indulging in crimination worse, far worse, than that, 
against which he himself has complained, and for which he 
sought redress, in his well known libel suit against Mr. Bennett 
for twenty thousand dollars in damages, at the hands of a jury 
of his countrymen. 

The community is heartily sick and disgusted with these 
continual attacks upon character, which degrade the Press and 
every individual who indulges in them. Pugilists, professed 
fighting-men, like those who on the last February mingled 
in conflict with Poole and Morrissey, are expected to startle 
the public mind with some tragic horror. It is the trade of 
such men. For gentlemen, however, — professors of letters, 
leaders of public opinion, directors of public taste, guardians 
of public morals, admirers of high art, the lights of science and 
of education, to descend to the expression of opinions which 
are unbecoming even to the most ignorant and brutal of the 
race, is to set an example to the rising generation that must 
terminate, if the exercise of such feelings cannot be terminated, 
in creating a condition of society which will make every 
worthy man consider the freedom of the Press as painful a 
curse as can be inflicted upon a country. 



A DUTY OF THE PRESS. 213 

With respect to the sale of editorial columns to business 
men, some other page of this work will be devoted. The 
point now necessary to be cleared up is that which appertains 
to the extorting of money from individuals by intimidation. 
That it has ever been done by Mr. Bennett, or with his 
sanction, can be believed by no man who has had an oppor- 
tunity to judge of his character ; and in the history of the 
Herald and its founder will be comprised an unanswerable 
replication to all those spasmodic charges which neither serve 
to cripple the progress of the Herald itself, nor to elevate 
those newspapers which continue to indulge in such latitudinal 
assertions. 

For the credit of the Press, for the elevation of journalists 
as a class, for the hopes which exist for a more glorious future 
for professional writers, in the name of Humanity, in the name 
of Decency, in the name of Truth, let such heedless and 
disgusting slanders, unsubstantiated by the least shadow of 
evidence, no longer be placed at the door of a rival, or even of 
an enemy. 



21.4 ANOTHER PERSONAL ASSAULT. 



CHAPTER XVI 



On the 9th of May, Mr. Bennett was assaulted again. The 
scene took place in Wall street, at no great distance from the 
spot where the same parties encountered each other three or 
four months before. There is an autobiographical account of 
it by Mr. Bennett. 

" As I was leisurely pursuing my business yesterday, in 
Wall street, collecting the information which is daily dissemi- 
nated in the Herald, James Watson Webb came up to me, on 
the northern side of the street — said something which I could 
not hear distinctly, then pushed me down the stone steps, 
leading to one of the broker's offices, and commenced fighting 
with a species of brutal and demoniac desperation characteristic 
of a fury. 

" My damage is a scratch, about three quarters of an inch in 
length, on the third finger of the left hand, which I received 
from the iron railing I was forced against, and three buttons 
torn from my vest, which any tailor will reinstate for a six- 
pence. His loss is a rent from top to bottom of a very beauti- 
ful black coat, which cost the ruffian $40, and a blow in the 
face, which may have knocked down his throat some of his 
infernal teeth for anything I know. Balance in my favor, 
$39 94. 

"As to intimidating me, or changing my course, the thing 
. cannot be done. Neither Webb nor any other man shall, or 
can, intimidate me. I tell the honest truth in my paper, and 
leave the consequences to God. Could I leave them in better 
hands? I may be attacked, I may be assailed, I may be 



THE SPHINX OF JOURNALISM. 215 

killed, I may be murdered, but I never will succumb. I never 
will abandon the cause of truth, morals, and virtue." 

The contemporary journals delight in this exhibition of 
physico-mental power. They gladden in gaping paragraphs. 
They roar in leading articles. They exult in the desired and 
anticipated downfall of a man known personally only to a 
few of them. They would be pleased to solve the riddle 
of this Sphinx of Journalism, in hopes that he may precipitate 
himself from his position and be dashed to pieces ! Eras break 
over him their thunders — Suns would scorch him into ashes, 
liks a scroll of papyrus in a Pompeian palace, Stars every 
evening shoot towards him, in vain ! The Journals of Com- 
mej-ce, the Courier and Enquirer, " Tray, Blanche, and Sweet- 
heart," all bark at him ! In vain — in vain ! The public enjoy 
the fun. The city is in a titter, and on tip-toe, and the rural 
districts are rapidly becoming acquainted with James Gordon 
Bennett ! The undaunted Editor speaks to his readers. 

" To me, all these attacks, falsehoods, lies, fabrications, are 
but as the idle wind. They do not ruffle my temper in the 
least. Conscious of virtue, integrity, and the purest principles, 
I can easily smile at the assassins, and defy their daggers. 

" My life has been one invariable series of efforts, useful to 
the world and honorable to myself — efforts to create an 
honorable reputation during life, and to leave something after 
my death for which posterity may honor my memory. I am 
building up a newspaper establishment that will take the lead 
of all others that ever appeared in the world, in virtue, in 
morals, in science, in knowledge, in industry, in taste, in 
power, in influence. No public reputation can be lasting 
unless it is built on private character and virtue. My whole 
private life has been one of virtue, integrity, and honorable 
effort, in every relation of society. Dissipation, extravagance, 
and fashionable follies never had any charms for me. * * * 
This has been the cause ■ of the success attending the 
Herald." 

The complaints of the Press only deny this in the most 
general terms. No positive and proved act is cited to weaken 



216 A SIN OF CONSCIENCE. 

the declarations which have been made. Thousands of per- 
sons know not what to think, as they have no knowledge of 
the antecedents of the man. The question is this — ' Is he in 
earnest V Meanwhile, Mr. Bennett appears to look at the 
future, over the shoulders of his antagonists. 

" Brute force, barbarian conduct, and miserable trick and 
juggle are the only weapons they employ. The Herald is pro- 
ducing, and will produce, as complete a revolution in the 
intellectual habit of daily life as steam power is doing in the' 
material. If 'a splendid fortune is the result to myself, that 
may be a matter of complacency, but is a matter of course. 
Like General Jackson, looking at the Presidency — ' I neither 
seek, or refuse it.' If it comes, it comes, like an old boot, on 
the right leg, easily, quietly, smoothly, and perfectly satisfac- 
tory to all concerned." 

He proceeds in this strain, till the memory of the character 
of his readers, which comprises a large proportion of the 
industrious females, flashes upon him. It is necessary for 
them to have a topic at the hour of luncheon. He gives it. 

" Yet amid all these thronging ideas hurrying across the 
mind, crowds of feelings fresh from the heart, and projects of 
the fancy, stealing on the heels of each other, as if by enchant- 
ment, there is one drawback, there is one sin, there is one 
piece of wickedness of which I am guilty, and with which my 
conscience is weighed down, night and day. I am a bachelor. 
I am unmarried, and, what is worse, I am so busy that I have 
no time to get a wife, although I am passionately fond of 
female society. For this great sin I have no apology to 
make. I can only throw myself heart, soul, feelings, and all, 
upon the compassion — the heavenly compassion of my 
enchanting and beautiful female readers. I know well it is 
my duty to get married and obey the laws of God and nature, 
but formerly to me the female sex appeared all so beautiful, 
all so enchanting, all so fascinating, that I became entirely 
bewildered and confused, and now I am so much engaged in 
building up the Herald, and reforming the age, that actually I 
have scarcely time to say, ' How do ye do ? ' " 



THE AGE OF THE PRESS. 217 

Again the editor recurs to his favorite theme. He sounds 
the fundamental note to sustain the tenor of his will. He is 
determined to advertise his journal and himself at the least 
expense possible. He provokes his neighbors again and again. 
Their replications make the Herald known to the whole 
country. The grand point is gained. 

" I mean to make the Herald the great organ of social 
life, the prime element of civilization, the channel through 
which native talent, native genius, and native power may- 
bubble up daily, as the pure sparkling liquid of the Con- 
gress fountain at Saratoga bubbles up from the centre of the 
earth, till it meets the rosy lips of the fair. I shall mix 
together commerce and business, pure religion and morals, 
literature and poetry, the drama and dramatic purity, till the 
Herald shall outstrip everything in the conception of man. 
The age of trashy novels, of more trashy poems, of most 
trashy quarterly and weekly literature, is rapidly drawing to 
a close. 

" This is the age of the Daily Press, inspired with the 
accumulated wisdom of past ages, enriched with the spoils of 
history, and looking forward to a millennium of a thousand 
years, the happiest and most splendid ever yet known in the 
measured span of eternity !" 

Does the Editor fully realize that the public mind is not 
animated by the true taste that makes real civilization ? In 
the fall of all the elegantly written periodicals and newspapers 
published for thirty years, in Boston, in Philadelphia, and 
New York, has he seen the folly of attempting to reform 
society by standing above it, and not with it ? What has he 
said? 

" Civilization is yet defaced with traits of barbarism. We 
are only half civilized. In our most polished communities, 
solitary outrages spring up that are a disgrace to the age — more 
the inroads of the desert than the manners of a civilized 
country. We have plenty of laws, but they are powerless and 
weak. The radical defect is in our social system. Moral 
courage is unknown and brutal outrage encouraged. Virtue is 

10 



218 AN AFFECTED AGE. 

driven from society, and vice impudently occupies the seats of 
honor and of power. This state of public opinion and of social 
manners must be reformed. Honor and reputation must only 
be associated with virtue, truth, order, and cultivated mind. 
Now is the period to begin this great reform, and we are one 
of those cool, courageous spirits that will aid and assist it 
forward." 

Passages objectionable on account of their style and sub- 
stance, are found side by side with such outbursts of feeling, and a 
species of assumed or real enthusiasm runs riot, occasionally, as 
if the master spirit directing affairs were in a hurry to bring 
about results on the instant — contrary to the experience of 
history in the matter of reformations, which are always slow in 
growth, and subjected to the utmost strength of man's resist- 
ance. Yet, again mark the Editor on a favorite theme of the 
heart, and not one dictated by the popular demand : 

" The highest state of civilization is exactly a counterpart 
to the primitive age of the world. Look back on history. 
How simple ! how unassuming ! how natural ! how candid ! 
how unpresuming were the Jewish patriarchs, or the heroic 
spirits of Greece and Ronie ! There was no false taste — no 
fastidiousness — no affected refinement of manners, combined 
with utter profligacy of conduct, as we find so frequently now. 
All the better sentiments of the human heart — all the finer 
feelings of the soul — were permitted to come and go — naturally, 
unaffectedly, like the cloud across the summer sky, or the 
sunbeam over the green field or the greener wave. Keligion 
is a daily sentiment of the human mind. It is part and parcel 
of the soul of man. He who is without it, is fit only for 
barbarism, grossness, death, and utter annihilation. * * * 
Infidelity ^md licentiousness have always appeared in the 
world together. They are twin-sisters — daughters of the same 
father and mother — Ignorance and Pride ! They are features 
of a half-civilized, affected age — an age which we are happy to 
see is beginning to fade in the admiration of the world." 

Every one familiar with Nassau street when the Herald was 
in its first year, will not fail to remember the sensation pro- 



REPLY TO SCOTCHMEN. 219 

duced every morning by Mr. Bennett. The public esteemed 
him to be a " curious genius," and he fooled them " to the top 
of their head." When his office was moved to Clinton Hall 
Building, now the Nassau Bank, the street was active with 
hasty readers of the " spicy Herald" and the young and 
industrious of both sexes who labored in that vicinity first 
learned to esteem the newspaper as a necessity of their daily 
being. To many of them it had been a rare luxury, but 
gradually they were educated into a habit, excited at first by 
curiosity, and many of them now, doubtless, derive instruction 
from the source whence at first they derived little else than 
amusement — not that the Herald did not instruct, but that 
policy seemed to require that not too much of the didactic 
should be mingled with their daily diet. 

Occasionally, a glowing, yet sober strain would invite the 
reader to the more profitable fields of improving Journalism ; 
or some exhibition of selfish solicitude would be reprehended 
with that sarcasm, which, while playful, was yet severe, and 
seldom failed to do its work. 

Two Scotchmen write to him in abusive terms, and think to 
swerve him from his course by reminding him of the land of 
their nativity, and by expressing their abhorrence of his ad 
captandum style of treating public questions. Is there not a 
fine exhibition of real character in his reply 1 Its philosophy 
and eloquence are charming. 

" It is the fate of Scotland, as it is that of all other countries, 
to give birth to its natural portion of barren, heartless, empty 
blockheads — yes, as barren as the brow of Ben Lomond, with- 
out possessing, as that picturesque mountain does, the slightest 
verdure over its bosom, or the softest touchings of nature on 
its breast. I am, indeed, a native of Scotland — But what of 
that 1 Do I possess any merit on that account 1 If I cannot 
stand in this community, on an equal footing not only with 
every Scotchman, but with any human being, as to morals, 
just sentiments, talents, genius, and education, I despise the 
ridiculous claim now set up by a brace of fools — ' I'm a Scotch- 
man — I'm a Scotchman.' No ! It is the man, not the accident 



220 



BIRTH AND WORTH. 



of his nativity, that should be weighed. Scotland has given 
birth to blockheads, fools, murderers, traitors, like any other 
country under heaven. Scotland has also given birth to poets, 
historians, philosophers, Christians, and a long line of men of 
genius, that would cast a halo of glory around any country. 
Was it because these happened to have been born on some of 
the green vales or barren heaths of that country, that they 
are entitled to the regard of the world % Are Burns, Scott, 
Hume, Blair, "familiar as household words" throughout the 
world, because they happen to be natives of Scotland 1 No 
such thing ! They stand on their own personal merits. — 
Scotland is and ought to be, proud of them ! 

" The attempt made in these days of civilization, or in this 
country, to set up a claim to merit, because a certain country 
has given one birth, is ridiculous, pitiful, and vulgar in the 
extreme. The accident of my birth in Scotland, since I com- 
muned with my own heart, I consider a matter of perfect 
indifference — nothing to be proud of — nothing to regret. But 
yet, I am proud — proud enough — proud as Lucifer, if you 
please. My early education, the morals inculcated in my 
youth, the noble and expansive sentiments taught by a tutor — 
sentiments that ever disdained to be bounded by the next 
mountain, or hemmed in by the first ocean wave — these, these, 
I feel proud of. These early sentiments I revert to with 
delight — these I plant myself upon, with firm footing, and 
despise all those vulgar assailants, whose principal claim to 
distinction is, being born in the same country with those few 
who sold their king, Charles Stuart, for filthy lucre, and who 
joined with the English, in importing a dirty set of German 
blockheads to reign over them ! 

" The introduction, or perpetuation of these ridiculous castes 
of Scotchmen, Irishmen, Englishmen, &c, &c, &c, in the social 
habits of this land is utterly preposterous and absurd. The 
classification of men according to nativity is unfit for a civilized 
and intelligent age — an intellectual people, or a cultivated race 
— but, above all things else, it is absurd and preposterous in 
this country. What is the reason that the Irish have of late 



PHILOSOPHY OF LIVING. 221 

become so obnoxious to the native Americans % What is the 
reason that the natives have associated together on the exclu- 
sive ground of birth 1 What is the reason that we see these 
movements breeding opposition, creating bad feelings, and 
interfering between man and man 1 

" I have asserted perfect mental liberty for myself since my 
earliest days, and I ever will do so. I was educated in Scot- 
land, a Roman Catholic, in all its exclusiveness, in all its rules, 
in all its penances, and yet at the first glimmerings of reason, 
at the age of fourteen, I began to doubt some of the dogmas of 
the church, to the great annoyance of father, mother, and 
parish priest. This spirit of mental independence sprung up, it 
is true, in Scotland ; but was it the soil, the climate, the blue 
hills, the cloudless skies, the fragrant summer heath, that pro- 
duced it ? No such thing ! It was the work of that Being 
who first gave to all the spark of Celestial Fire. Whatever I 
am, whatever I have been, whatever I may be, is, was, and will 
be, all owing to the Creator of the universe, the author of reli- 
gion, of love, of peace, and of good- will to men. 

" For the present, though I am a native of Scotland, and 
have been a Scotchman, I also glory in being a man, a free- 
man, an American ; yea, even a real, unadulterated, genuine 
native !" 

The Soul of the Philosophy of Living is couched in the 
allusion, made above, to the First Cause of the mental and 
physical actions — of the inspirations and deeds of man. 
At a later day, after having passed through, privately, many 
trials, he says, with all the indications of the same sincere spirit 
that he formerly exhibited after an assault mentioned towards 
the close of this chapter, " I bear a charmed existence. Neither 
fire, nor sword, nor steel, nor competition, nor hate, nor abuse, 
nor falsehood, nor slander, nor indictments, nor persecutions, 
of a thousand forms, can quench my spirit, impede my move- 
ments, or throw obstacles in my way. I do sincerely believe 
some superior Power watches over me." 

It is reasonable to say, that a being impressed with a 
thorough sensibility of the fact of human dependence upon 



222 ORIGINALITY OF CHARACTER. 

Divine ordinations, could not do less than -work out the interior 
promptings of his nature, provided he had become so far a phi- 
losopher, as to know and comprehend the noblest service, and 
the purest worship Man can offer to God. This is energetically 
to toil, with the Christian precepts to guide him, in the appro- 
priate sphere of his own personal individuality, untrammelled 
by a spirit of weak, dependent imitation, or by the withering 
restraint of the yet weaker and grovelling conventionalities of 
society, to which the willing mental slaves of the world bow in 
vain idolatry, sacrificing the offspring of all the virtues to the 
crocodiles engendered in the sluggish and slimy depths of the 
sacred yet pestilential Nile of the Past. 

Yes, it is true that he who would work successfully must toil 
by his own inward light, and he who would live nobly must 
never cease to recognise his connexion with the pulsations of 
the Divine Will, from which proceeds all Purpose and Power, 
all Enthusiasm and Individuality. No man has lived who has 
made any permanent illumination of the world, by his character, 
when he has followed "in the footsteps of an illustrious prede- 
cessor." Nothing less than originality of expression in human 
workmanship can produce unselfish results — those wretched 
guerdons of nearly all minds. The laws of God and of Nature 
burn and flame for ever to this end, that the tide of human progres- 
sion, vitalized by action, may ebb and flow for the purification, 
brotherhood, and peace of the great and ever increasing mass 
of Humanity, as do the blazing orbs of heaven, in ceaseless 
ministration, agitate by their fires and fan with the winged 
winds the unmeasured ocean, cradled on the unseen pillows of 
the earth, that it may heave in the placid slumbers of life, or 
awake ever and anon to kiss, with salt lips, its smiling kindred 
shores. 

Yes, it is originality of character, alone, that shapes the 
destinies of individuals, of nations, and of the human race. It 
is only by this that the will of God is administered, and he 
alone, can be a faithful steward in His secure yet mysterious 
government, who, with a bold mind, an undaunted soul, and a 
truthful spirit, presses forward to exhibit the experiences of 



RELIANCE ON PROVIDENCE. 223 

reflection, in the earnest words, or works, which are fashioned 
in the heart, the imagination, and the intellect. 

Mr. Bennett has not been an imitator of any man ; and, as is 
believed, by the acts of his life, he has not made a mockery of 
those views of Providence which he entertained from his youth, 
and thus forcibly expressed twenty years ago. About five 
years since, when more feeble in body than usual, after he had 
been assailed in the street by maddened adversaries in what 
was known as the Graham affair, as he stood in his editorial 
room in Nassau Street, while from his head was washed the 
blood that incarnadined the snows of fifty winters — most of 
them recorded by incessant study, patient energy, and by no 
aimless or useless zeal, when asked how it was possible for him 
to escape the deadly weapons of his assailants, " more in sorrow 
than in anger " at what had transpired, he replied, " I know 
not — -but Providence, who so often has saved me, has protected 
me again." 

There is no complaint — no murmur- — no blasphemy. The 
Editor is not a profane man, not even when provoked to 
anger. Two of his friends — sincere ones — stand by him, and 
assist to allay his pains ; and then he sits down and recounts 
the particulars of the assassination. It is done with the same 
coolness and philosophical composure that usually distinguish 
him. The story ended, preparations are made to arrange the 
matter for the next day's paper] It is duly issued, with its 
customary spirit, mind, and peculiarities of character. But for 
the announcement, no one of its readers could tell that the 
Herald or its Editor has met with any difficulty. 

Ah ! What says the Press of the metropolis 1 This attack 
upon a venerable journalist — -upon one of the associated Press 
— who make a common purse to meet their expenses in tele- 
graphing — upon one with whom they have stood side by side 
for twenty, yes, thirty years, will surely call up a storm of 
slumbering indignation. 

Not so ! There is no esprit du corps. There is no regard 
for the public peace. Is there an improvement in feeling 
to-day among these editors, who seem, each of them, like 



224 NEGRO MINSTRELSY OF JOURNALISM. 

Cerberus at the gates of Hades] Can they not cast aside 
their prejudices and their ancient hate, for the public good, for 
their own protection, or even for the interests of their own 
class 1 Will they ever ? The future must determine. 

Mr. Bennett's views, cited above, embrace something further 
that may be worthy of particular remembrance. They contain 
the essence of all proper thought and correct legislation with 
respect to the citizenship of foreigners in this country — guarded 
as that privilege ought to be, and must be, for the welfare of 
future generations even more than for the individual interests 
of the present hour. Twenty years have not changed Mr. 
Bennett in the principles of his cosmopolitan, catholic, American 
idea. 

There is shown in the above specimen of that virgin ore within 
his soul, a sterling value and a sharp ring, known only to the 
unnawed gold, which eventually will be the currency of the most 
blessed regions on this continent, and of the whole human 
brotherhood. No base alloy stains the brilliancy of that pat- 
tern-piece. By the pure Christian standard it will be sustained, 
and, in after times, when nations shall revert to the trial pieces 
in the Mint of Thought and Endeavor, the precise temper of 
that one will exact spontaneously the admiration and approba- 
tion of millions of men. 

Let, then, the declaration of principles, honorable to the most 
exalted mind, and favorable to the ultimate blessing of humanity, 
be set down by the side of those playful or passionate ebulli- 
tions - of an impulsive spirit, which, as is well proved, were 
demanded by the depravity of public taste, rather than delighted 
in by the will or desire of the Editor. 

The dark character of Journalism was necessary, fifteen or 
twenty years ago, to educate the people into the enjoyment 
of a higher style of art, just as Negro Minstrelsy and Negro 
plays are at twenty-five cents a head, this very day, to prepare 
the taste-lacking portion of the public for the refinement and 
elegancies of the Opera and of the Drama. Persons of fash- 
ionable habits, and, doubtless, wishing to be esteemed tasteful, 
and even patrons of the arts for the sake of the arts and their 



LITERATURE AND APPRECIATION. 225 

uses, and admirers of literature for trie treasures it contains, 
would not support Mr. Bennett while the Herald was, in its 
infancy, modest, and daintily fashioned. He tried them, and 
they sorely tried him. He could not prosper ; in other words, 
he could attract no public attention till he caricatured himself, 
physically and morally, mentally and editorially, and became, 
to all outward appearance, that which he never had been, and 
which he was not, till he was forced to it, or to the disgrace of 
breaking his contracts, or to the lesser dishonor in the view of 
commercial morality and mercy, of starvation. 

If he would become a great man, situated as he was, with 
but a small capital, and unpaid by any political spoils, he must 
be a mountebank. He must blacken his face, or the public 
would not look at him, and could not find any music in him — 
precisely as they can discover no music or mirth, beauty or 
wit, in white men and women to-day, until they are daubed 
over with burnt cork and lard, and show the darkest of dark 
skins to be attractive. The idea will be completely developed 
when African minstrels paint themselves white, to return the 
compliments of the musical season. The Black Swan and the 
Indian Mario could, if disposed, occupy this field of enterprise ; 
though Miss Greenfield has a taste, probably, superior to such 
a desecration of her talents ! 

Yes, Mr. Bennett might have written, in prose, with the 
force of a Milton, or even, in verse, with the elevated fervor of 
that inspired republican spirit of Cromwell's day ; he might 
have indulged in the beauties of thought which distinguish the 
Sidneys, the Felthams, the Brownes, the Taylors, and all that 
long line of earnest thinkers of the seventeenth century • he 
might have poured out the treasures of the various, but ragged, 
though often bepraised styles of that subsequent century which 
gave to the world the over estimated and much prated of, 
though much less read, Addisons, and Kichardsons, and Steeles ; 
he might have reasoned like Locke, or Bacon, or Adam Smith, 
or have been a model in his prose style, like Southey ; have 
been as brilliant as Goethe, or as mysteriously profound as 
Coleridge ; yet, in the city of New York, he would not have 



226 



PUBLIC TASTE. 



sold newspapers enough, in the year 1836, to furnish him with 
shilling dinners — then originating in course with the establish- 
ment of the Penny Press, — provided he honestly had paid, as 
has ever been his wont, his printers and his paper makers. So 
much for public taste. 



THE HAMBLIN ATTACK. 227 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Other subjects upon which the Herald discoursed largely 
during the year 1836, were the " Disclosures of Maria Monk,''' 
the false quotations of the markets by newspapers, tending to 
the deception of farmers — -riots — -the opening of the Tabernacle 
for the first time on the 20th of July — the death and dissection 
of Joyce Heth — the indictment of McDowall's Journal, and 
kindred topics. The money articles of the Herald, also, were 
rendered so important as to draw towards this country atten- 
tion from Europeans who had neglected to see in the United 
States a field for the investment of capital, and it was not long 
after Mr. Bennett first originated this department of the Press, 
that it was adopted by every daily journal in the Atlantic 
cities. 

On the 6th of April, the Herald office was removed from 
Broadway to Clinton Hall Building. This was a few weeks 
after the paper had been enlarged. In August, the circulation 
had increased so much, and the paper sold at such high prices 
in the street, that its price was raised to two cents. Yet, 
though success attended the financial department, and the 
result of the editorial labors was highly satisfactory, all was 
not smooth and easy. Questions of a domestic kind had arisen 
respecting a public man, and the newspapers had undertaken 
to sift the merits of the case. These need not be recited. It 
will suffice to say that Mr. Bennett was personally attacked in 
his private office by Thomas S. Hamblin and associates, robbed 
by somebody at the time of about three hundred dollars, and 
was injured otherwise. A settlement to cover the actual costs 
was subsequently made, after a conviction for the offence on 



228 FREDERIC HUDSON. 

the 23rd of February, 1837, Mr. Bennett acceding to Mr. Ham- 
blin's proposition. It is only justice to say that Mr. Bennett, 
in 1850, pardoned Mr. Hamblin's indiscretion and rashness, so 
far as to aid the theatrical manager in his effort to save his 
property in the Bowery Theatre, by making a handsome 
appeal on the subject to the public. It is equally due to Mr, 
Hamblin's heart to say that he deeply regretted his early con- 
duct towards Mr. Bennett. 

The Herald, near the close of the year 1836, thus expressed 
itself through its Editor : — 

" The surprising success of the Herald has astonished my- 
self. I began on five hundred dollars, was twice burnt out, 
once had my office robbed, have been opposed and calumniated 
by the whole newspaper Press, ridiculed, contemned, threaten- 
ed, yet here I am, at the end of fifteen months, with an esta- 
blishment, the materials of which are nearly worth five thousand 
dollars, nearly all paid for, and a prospect of making the 
Herald yield in two years a revenue of at least thirty thousand 
dollars a year ; yet I care not, I disregard, I value not money. 
I rise early, and work late, for character, reputation, the good 
of mankind, the civilization of my species. It is my passion, 
my delight, my thought by day, and my dream by night to 
conduct the Herald, and to show the world and posterity, that 
a newspaper can be made the greatest, most fascinating, most 
powerful organ of civilization that genius ever yet dreamed of. 
The dull, ignorant, miserable barbarian papers around me, are 
incapable of arousing the moral sensibilities, or pointing out 
fresh paths for the intellectual career of an energetic genera- 
tion." 

Mr. Bennett's designs to enlarge the scope and usefulness 
of his journal caused him to employ the talents of those who 
were most practised in the labors of a newspaper. Among 
these he made such selections as could best be commanded. 
Some of them were unfortunate ones, others were of that 
character which time proves and approves. Among these, he 
found an able assistant in Frederic Hudson of Boston, who 
with his brother Edward still remains in the editorial depart- 



ARIEL AND PROSPERO. 229 

ment. No establishment ever had a more circumspect and 
noble man to guide it, and Mr. Bennett has reason to congra- 
tulate himself on his good fortune, in retaining for so many 
years one who would do credit to the general management of 
any journal. Others have not been so faithful to their trust, 
and history demands that the truth shall be revealed, for there 
was a time when Mr. Bennett believed, and alas, too largely 
relied upon his " trusty Ariel." 

Who is Ariel 1 Can he say, as he gazes in the face of his 
director ? — 

" I have done thee worthy service ; 
Told thee no lies, made no rnistakings, served 
Without or grudge or grumbling." 

No, he is not .like the quaint, fine apparition that beautifies 
the " Tempest" of Shakspeare. He runs about with powers, 
by nature capable of refined and valuable uses, but in his 
habits he is Caliban. His pockets are filled with spermaceti 
candles (they then burned candles in the Herald office), and 
numberless pairs of scissors, publicly displayed as proofs of 
his appropriating ingenuity, and at his lodgings are heaps of 
uncatalogued things, obtained more through the spirit of mis- 
chief than of acquisitiveness, till they are found by their 
wronged owner, who has them carted away and returned to 
the establishment whence they have been taken ! 

Is he an Ariel whose tongue is among the first to do 
injustice to Prospero, and who would claim all possible talent 
for himself, even to the depreciation of his generous employer ? 
No ! never was there a greater mistake than in taking this 
one for an Ariel. Some talent he has surely, even a kind of 
genius, such as it is, but his faculties never so well are balanc- 
ed, and certainly never so well are guarded by his own will, 
as to thank the Creator for the gifts he has bestowed upon 
him. Divine charity, draw the veil over these infirmities ! 
De mortuis nil nisi honum. Justice, however, requires that 
actual knowledge, by a stranger to him, should testify to the 
scandals which many years ago suggested the propriety of this, 



230 RECONCILED JOURNALISTS. 

or some similar volume, scandals on Mr. Bennett, which arising 
in the careless, if not criminal mirthfulness and selfishness of 
this being, have perpetuated their poison to the present hour, 
There is no more painful memory than that of mind misapplied 
— no more hateful sin than that of wanton wrong and 
ingratitude — and no more regretful duty for the pen of a 
biographer than to trace the rill that has been muddied to the 
source of that disturbance which has attracted public attention. 
Ariel had two characters, one arising from his own inherent 
and cultivated powers, and the other from the stimulation 
which his animal qualities received from habits too slightly 
contemplated and . too seldom checked. He was reckless, but 
neither generous nor just — he had his friends, but he was his 
own worst enemy. Infected by the baneful examples which 
too often have been given to the world by men who have 
pursued literature as a profession, he deprived society of the 
results of well applied industry, and by his follies injured 
an establishment whose proprietor most generously pardoned 
his faults and provided for his heirs. That charity which is 
the highest and noblest quality of a Christian, and without 
which, life would be one unmitigated scene for turmoil and 
contention, has closed the tomb over the ashes of Ariel, and an 
unwritten epitaph is in the moral of this brief history. 

Among the newspapers which had been hostile to Mr. Ben- 
nett was the New Era, which joined in the general attempt to 
crush the Herald, by the invention of falsehoods and libels 
of various kinds. After the second grand onslaught, Mr. 
Price, who had been an editor of the New Era, was reduced 
to great distress, by losses, and reliances on false friends. In 
November he published a card, the conclusion of which will 
be sufficient to introduce the subject. 

" He preferred applying to those with whom he had fierce 
contests. To one of these he went and related the circum- 
stances of his position ; the person applied to, heard the story 
out, bade the writer be of good cheer, spoke kindly and 
soothingly to him, opened his purse strings, and put the sum 
required at the writer's disposal, and proffered more, without 



AN ENEMY HUMBLED. 231 

a.word of security, without requiring a line of acknowledgment. 
The money can be returned, but the sympathy and kindness 
never ; and as there appears to be a set purpose to run down 
James Gordon Bennett, it is with a warm gush of gratitude 
that the person whose name is subscribed, declares that he was 
the person who received the kindness at Mr. Bennett's 
hands." 

This was signed by Joseph Price, and published in the New 
Times, a paper issued for a brief term at this period. Mr. Price 
rras well aware of the attempt to injure Mr. Bennett, and was 
:>n the side of the antagonists ; but, when he needed sympathy, 
)jaw where to best find real goodness of heart united with the 
manners of a Christian gentleman. He called on Mr. Bennett, 
at the " gloaming" hour, and not finding him in his private 
room, seated himself on the sofa. Soon after, Mr. Bennett 
entered, and dimly distinguished, much to his surprise, his 
visitor, but remained silent. Mr. Price arose, and bowing, said, 

"Mr. Bennett, you will be surprised to see me here." 

" A little," was the response. 

" Only hear me out," said he, his voice agitated with emo- 
tion, " that is all I wish." 

Then he related the position in which he had been placed, 
and added that he sought from Mr. Bennett, whom he had 
opposed, the means to relieve him of his difficulties. 

" Well," said Mr. Bennett, " this is a singular application." 

" I know," was the reply, " I know it is, but you can appre- 
ciate my feelings and my situation." 

At that moment, the position of Mr. Price, the wants of his 
family flashed across Mr. Bennett's mind, and " all the recol- 
lections of the past fled." He could not resist the impulse of 
the moment — but followed his own maxim, to forgive past 
errors in the afflictions of an enemy, and as he has done a 
hundred times, generously rendered the required aid. When 
Mr. Price received the money he was deeply moved at heart. 
The tears trickled down his cheeks — and if all persons who 
have written against Mr. Bennett and then applied to him for 
assistance, had been as manly as Mr. Price, the Press of the 



232 JOHN HAGGERTY. 

country would long since have taught the people that slanders 
are not as immortal as the soul of man. Mr. Bennett at one 
time referred to the scene described above, and said that his 
visitor departed, " overflowing with expressions of manly 
gratitude, so honorable and engaging in human beings. There 
are more sunny spots in this world than misanthropists believe. 
Neither is vice so powerful, nor virtue so ill rewarded, as 
atheists and infidels would insinuate. Firm, energetic, untir- 
ing, talented virtue, will conquer all malignant foes, and vindi- 
cate its mental and moral supremacy against the darkest con- 
spiracy." 

In September of this year, Mr. Bennett was fined five hun- 
dred dollars for publishing the name of John Haggerty in a 
list of insolvents furnished by a reporter. The money was 
promptly paid into court, and the next day the same amount 
was contributed by his friends, and presented to him as a 
token of their opinion of the administration of justice in the 
case — Mr. Bennett having corrected the error the day after 
its occurrence. The circumstance was worth about five hun- 
dred dollars more for the fan it created, and the opportunity 
which it afforded for those satirical paragraphs which were the 
chief enjoyment of society at that time, and a favorite indul- 
gence of the Editor. 



CANADIAN REVOLT. 233 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



The Herald, at the commencement of 1838, had taken a 
comparatively high position in politics, commerce, literature, and 
art. The variety of its correspondence from every part of the 
world attracted largely the public attention ; and the editorial 
views on public affairs gave to its columns no ordinary import- 
ance. Large expenses attended this department of the journal. 

On the first of January the country was highly excited on 
the position of affairs in Canada. William Lyon Mackenzie, as 
Chairman of the Provisional Government of Upper Canada, 
— established by the Patriots, as they were called, at Navy 
Island — issued a bold proclamation on the 13th of the preced- 
ing December, in open hostility to the British government, and 
for a time serious consequences were apprehended; but the 
affair eventually ended without quite so much trouble as was 
anticipated, the gentleman above named finding a place in the 
New York Custom House, where he procured sundry letters, 
afterwards published by him, as is understood, in a political 
pamphlet. Among these were one or two epistles from Mr. 
Bennett, at the time he edited the Philadelphia Pennsylvanian, 
for the interests of the democratic party. They contained, how- 
ever, nothing that reflected any discredit upon Mr. Bennett, or 
anything contrary to the usages of political organizations as 
they have been directed for the last half century. These pub- 
lications may or may not have been made in a retaliatory spirit. 
It is certain, however, that the manly, bold, and decisive course 
taken by the Herald against Mr. Mackenzie's revolutionary 
proceedings, was not lost upon American legislators and the 
country. The incendiary movement was arrested, and the 



£'34 SIRIUS AND GREAT WESTERN. 

false sympathy of a portion of the American people checked by 
appeals to reason, common sense, and to the necessity of 
preserving the established foreign relations which bound the 
country to complete neutrality. 

At this time, too, the Herald repeated its rebukes on the 
operations with Texas scrip, which had been distributed to 
many parties who used the Press as the speculators desired 
■ — scrip which is during the present year to be redeemed in the 
shape of money. The history of this affair, however, is too 
long for the design of these pages. It may suffice to say, that 
it is quite evident from Mr. Bennett's course that he had no 
sympathy with the grossly corrupt conduct connected with that 
remarkable movement — one without a parallel, the Bank of 
the United States excepted, as some would declare, and, per- 
haps, with propriety and truth. 

On the 24th of February, at Washington, Jonathan Cilley, 
of Maine, was shot in a duel. The circumstances created a 
thrill of horror throughout the country, and the language of the 
Herald was severely in reprobation of the whole affair. It had 
a great influence ; but in regard for the feelings of those who 
were engaged in the affair, it kindly saved its political enemy, 
where it might have triumphed, had a malign disposition tri- 
umphed over mercy. Public opinion had been moralized by 
the lesson and the homilies it produced, and the subject was 
permitted to slumber. 

With the exception of the topics growing out of financial 
questions, which were numerous after the great commercial 
panic of 1837, no other great public event agitated the country till 
the appearance of the steamships " Sirius " and" Great Western," 
from England, in the harbor of New York — the beginning of 
those vast enterprises in the steam marine of Great Britain and 
the United States, which have conferred incalculable happiness 
on society, and affected, beyond all calculation, the commercial 
interests of the country. Both vessels arrived on the same day, 
St. George's Day, April 23d. The excitement everywhere 
was intense. The spirit of it is, in Mr. Bennett's own language, 
appended. 



GO AHEAD. 235 

" The advantages will be incalculable ; no more petty 
rivalries, or national antipathies ; no odious misconstructions 
and paltry jealousies, but a mutual love and respect growing- 
out of an accurate knowledge of one another's good qualities, 
and a generous emulation in the onward march of mind, 
genius, enterprise, and energy, towards the perfectibility of 
man, and the amelioration of our physical, social, moral, and 
commercial condition. Such are among the prominent features 
of the bright and exhilarating vision brought into birth by this 
most auspicious event, and by which the minds of our fellow 
citizens have been so excited. They are founded in fact, and 
have nothing Eutopian about them, and are as deducible from 
positive data, as any demonstration in the Novum Organum, or 
any solution in the Mecanique Celeste. In the popular style 
of encouragement, and in one very appropriate to the subject, 
we most emphatically say, Go ahead !" 

Mr. Bennett rejoiced, also, that this epoch in the marine 
history of the country for ever destroyed the necessity for the 
Press to keep up extensive and expensive boat establish- 
ments. He declared with great satisfaction, "the smallest 
paper can have the news as soon as the largest." He was not 
stimulated for the moment only, but was fired to still greater 
exertions in his sphere by the event. He was at once deter- 
mined to visit the old world, there to make arrangements for 
a future which he clearly saw was just dawning brightly over 
the mercantile and social habits of the country, and his own 
position as a journalist. It was one of those periods in the 
life of a man when, by taking the tide at its flood, fortune is 
secured. 

Within three years, in addition to a personal superinten- 
dence of every department of his journal, Mr. Bennett, with 
his own hand, had written more than five thousand pages of 
the size in this volume, on thousands of topics. His chief 
labors, however, were on the editorial columns, and on the 
celebrated " money articles," which were entirely written by 
himself, and which had more influence in Europe, and on the 
revival of the credit of the United States, and of the individual 



236 ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. 

states of Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Alabama, and Michigan, 
there and here, than any other known to the regions of finance. 
In all this time his health had been good, his natural spirits 
buoyant under every scandal, trial, and perplexity, and he 
enjoyed the incessant intercourse which his perceptive powers 
held with life and society in its multifarious forms. His habits 
had been methodical, as they ever were ; he arose early, and 
retired to rest not far from ten o'clock at night, bathing daily 
in warm, or cold water, in obedience to his sensations of pro- 
priety — -always better than a fixed rule, prescribed by custom 
and fashion, without regard to local considerations, or pecu- 
liarities of temperament and constitution. 

On the first day of May, more than twenty years since he 
crossed the Atlantic before, Mr. Bennett went to sea in the 
" Sirius," having sold at auction, prior to his departure, many 
articles of furniture, books, and the like, which were eagerly 
purchased by those friends who, in case any mishap should 
befall the man, were pleased to possess some relic — though the 
mass of the community knew little of him, and from the repre- 
sentations of the Press supposed him to be, what some persons 
even at this day think him, a stranger to industry, worth, and 
high endeavor. One of his literary friends-f — one who knew 
him well, leaves the appended lines upon record. 

" No man in this country has received more unmerited 
abuse, and no man has been more grossly misrepresented, but 
with as kind a heart as ever beat beneath a human breast, and 
as clear a head as ever man possessed, industry untiring, per- 
severance unparalleled, and firmness almost to a fault, he has 
established an envied reputation for himself and paper that 
can never die." 

Mr. Bennett arrivejl at Falmouth, England, on the 19th of 
May, after a comparatively long and a boisterous passage, and 
proceeded immediately across the country, through Devonshire, 
the garden of England, to London, for the purpose of taking 
to that metropolis the first news of the successful voyages 
across the Atlantic. It could not have gone thither by a more 
appropriate harl/nger. On the morning of the 21st of May he 






/ 



AMERICANS AND ENGLISHMEN. 237 

was in London, where he soon became acquainted with the 
chief editors and publishers, and consulted with many eminent 
men, all of whom were much excited by the fact that the 
Sirius and Great Western had made passages contrary to the 
learned dictum of Dr. Lardner, who had reported against the 
practicability of such a thing being done ! 

In passing through Devonshire, he conversed with a gentle- 
manly Tory on the relative merits of England and the United 
States. 

" Yours is a beautiful country," said Mr. Bennett, " it is 
highly cultivated, every valley is a garden, every little hill a 
paradise, but it is all in miniature. It seems as if I could put 
my hand from this coach, and, stretching it over these lovely 
fields, hide them from the light of day. It seems as if a 
pocket-handkerchief hung up in the sun, would bury all 
Devonshire in darkness. It is a lovely, rich country, but a 
Kentuckian could put it into his breeches' pocket, and almost 
button the flap upon it !" 

" Oh, oh," said the good-natured gentleman, laughing, " that 
is some of your Yankee wit. By the way, you Americans 
quite surpass the Irish in extravagant ideas and expressions." 

" That comes," replied Mr. Bennett, " of our very extrava- 
gant country. We blow up a steamer before breakfast, kill a 
hundred persons, and then go to work coolly for dinner." 

"Oh!" exclaimed the listener, who like most Englishmen 
was a very practical and sober thinker, and a slow talker, 
" shocking ! shocking ! what a terrible waste of life !" 

Mr. Bennett saw on the Thames a screw propeller, which he 
supposed to be a novelty. It had been tried on the Surrey 
canal — but on the Northampton, Massachusetts canal, a screw 
propeller, and that at the bow, was known as early as the 
Autumn of 1833. He was present, also, at the launching of 
the British Queen steamer, where he became acquainted with 
several distinguished men. Among these was Sir Edward 
Bulwer Lytton, who extended every civility to the New York 
Editor. The great matter that engaged Mr. Bennett's attention, 
in addition to subjects connected with fashion, commerce, 



\ 



238 NEAR THE OLD HOME. 

finance, and trade, was the coronation of Victoria, on the 28th 
of June. 

On the evening of the 4th of July, having exhausted London 
of every novelty calculated to throw light upon the future — for 
Mr. Bennett dwells but little on the past when he has work to 
perform — he went on board a steamer for Edinburgh, his object 
being to visit the home of his infancy, and a fond mother 
whose side he had left nearly a quarter of a century before. 
She had frequently written to him to visit her, and he had 
desired to do so, but beyond furnishing her and the family 
with additional comforts from the proceeds of his industry and 
skill, his communications with home had been by letters only, 
during this long period of absence — not of estrangement. 

On the 6th of July he landed at Leith, and entered Edin- 
burgh. It had been his intention to go to Paris, but he 
could not suppress the desire, after the vain splendors and 
pageant of the coronation, to behold the scenes of his youth. 
The recollections of his earliest years, those budding days 
which no being ever forgets, returned upon his fancy with a 
new and overpowering gush of tenderness and desire. He 
hastened to the North, " trembling with emotion, like the 
magnet toward the Pole." 

" For a time," said he, " I'll be a school-boy again. I will 
forget all the scenes of grandeur, and pride, and ambition. I 
will be a child at once, and visit my dear mother !" 

While at Edinburgh he ascended Calton Hill, and wandered 
hither and thither like a boy let loose from school. The 
children were playing on the grass. It was almost an age 
since he had heard the Doric dialect of the North from the lips 
of children, thus. A coursing thrill of emotion agitated his heart, 
his eyes were filled with tears. He forgot New York, and all 
his hopes, aims, and ambitions there, all the trials, wrongs, and 
injuries there inflicted on him, he no longer thought of the 
Atlantic and its fleets of steamers, — he forgot London, with its 
bustle, smoke, wealth, and coronation — and was wholly ab- 
sorbed in the recollections of infancy and childhood. He sat 
down upon the grass, and gave way to those irrepressible 



THE GOWANS. 239 

feelings which, like the tears that accompany them, spring from 
a fountain known only to God. Yes, there he mused, reviewed 
the scenes of his active career, contrasted them with his early 
sports and happiness, and left not the place till the sun had 
gone down over the land of his adoption — where, as he 
expressed it, he was horn a second time, and so saved his 
soul! 

Mr. Bennett during his brief sojourn in Edinburgh, called 
upon one or two of the prominent citizens of the place, visited 
most of the localities celebrated in the books of tourists, not 
forgetting the statuary of Robert Forrest, the self-taught 
sculptor of Scotland, who worked his way into distinction by 
his celebrated statues of Bacchus, the Highland Chief, old Nor- 
val, Sir John Falstaff, Rob Roy, and John Knox, the latter 
to be seen in the Merchants' Park at Glasgow. 

On Sunday afternoon of July 8th, Mr. Bennett strolled 
towards the ruins of St. Anthony's chapel, stopped at the Well 
at the base of the green hill, took from the clusters of boys 
and girls a lad to guide him, and ascended. As he proceeded 
he espied the gowan — the modest unpretending daisy. It was 
the first sight he had of one in many — many long, troublesome, 
but not . unprofitable years. When a boy at school, by the 
waters of the Isla, he used to play on the gowans, roll on the 
gowans, ay, sleep upon them. He plucked one, looked at it 
for a moment, and the whole tide of early feelings broke upon 
his heart. He turned his head, averting his face from the 
children lest it should betray the noble weakness that gushed 
from his streaming eyes, and strove, by clambering over the 
rocks to the ruins of the chapel, to regain the composure of 
heart which the sight of the unobtrusive, wee flower had 
destroyed for the moment by being linked with the tenderest 
associations and memories. It is related by one of the Scotch 
metaphysicians — either Dugald Stewart or Reid — that some 
travellers who were in the midst of an African desert had 
nearly lost their heart and courage during their dangerous and 
difficult journey, when they espied upon the sand a common 
table-spoon. This symbol of civilization discovered upon a 



240 ABERDEEN. 

spot, where they supposed human foot had never trod, over- 
whelmed them with the deepest emotions, and they burst 
into tears from the swift gush of sympathies connected with 
the associations it suggested, and the fact that civilized man 
had penetrated where they stood. Man has only to isolate 
himself from all companionship with man, and nature and 
circumstance will speak to him in a language so sweet, deep, 
and melodious, that it will awake the chords of every heavenly 
emotion that rests dormant in his bosom. The stray spoon on 
the desert sand, or the idle flower peeping through the grass, 
may have a ministry in the orifices of Providence that man in 
his pride of learning can only feel, and the mystery of which 
he never can solve. 

But there were the children among the gowans, those types 
of childhood, innocence, and modesty. They were not over- 
looked by him who always joined in their harmless mirth. 

" Jamie," said one of the little girls to her brother, " Jamie, 
I want to ro' doon the hill !" Away she went, rolling and 
rolling at full length, before the stranger ; and as she whirled 
side-long over the grass, her drapery was disturbed, till she 
rested at the foot of the green, displaying a little too nudely 
her delicate white limbs. 

" Oh, Annie, Annie," screamed her little brother, " ye're 
shawing o'er muckle o' your leg." 

" Am I ?" said she springing to her feet like a young fawn, 
and shaking herself into her former propriety. " Weel, I 
munna do that — munna do that!" and she bounded away, 
with the careless and innocent merriment of her age, till she 
was lost to sight. 

On the 9th of May, Mr. Bennett left Edinburgh for the 
North, in the mail coach, which was an admirable conveyance 
before rail-roads came into vogue, both in England and Scot- 
land. He passed the lovely lake" of Loch Leven, caught a 
glimpse of the ruins of the castle on the island, passed through 
Perth, and by the Gothic bridge, entered Aberdeen. Till now 
he had seemed almost a stranger — in a strange land. Even 
the dialect of the people was not familiar to him, but in the 



AULD LANG SYNE. 241 

old city, among the earliest in the history of mercantile enter- 
prise in Scotland, he still found some traces of the scenes which 
had been familiar to him while yet a youth. The beautiful 
Dee, in which while at school at a seminary upon its banks, 
he had been wont to bathe in company with his tutors and 
playmates, for such was the unrestrained freedom of custom 
then, flashed before his eyes first of all, brightly shimmering 
under the setting sun, and bringing back the memory of those 
hours when he first consecrated his heart soberly to literature 
and to high and manly endeavor. Here was the early home of 
Byron, and here are the houses still pointed at as his residences 
in Queen and Broad street. Here Beattie, the author of " The 
Minstrel," lived and died, and the self-exiled stranger now 
revisiting the scene might have quoted the lines of the noble 
bard — 

" As Auld Lang Syne brings Scotland, one and all, 

Scotch plaids, Scotch snoods, the blue hills and clear streams, 
The Dee, the Don, Balgounie's brig's black wall, 

All my boy's feelings, all my gentler dreams 
Of what I then dreamed, clothed in their own pall, 
Like Banquo's offspring, — floating past me seems 
My childhood in this childishness of mine ; — 
I care not — 'tis a glimpse of ' Auld Lang Syne.' " 

Mr. Bennett remained at Aberdeen only a single night, and 
had not time to witness the great changes which had been 
made in the ancient city, since he left it, while yet a boy. 
The great thoroughfare which was about to be opened when 
he originally left home for America, now forming an important 
part of the city, had swept away many streets and localities 
which were familiar objects a quarter of a century before, yet 
he discovered some of the old sites and streets which he had 
once known, and his memory reverted with pleasure to those 
scenes where he had first cultivated a positive taste for letters, 
and to that hall of the Grammar-school, where he used to meet 
in delightful intercourse with the literary club of his youth. 

The next morning, the 10th of July, Mr. Bennett took a 

11 



242 ARRIVAL AT KEITH. 

seat upon the outside of the coach for a journey of abont forty- 
five miles to the North, to the precise locality where he was 
horn, and his infancy trained for the battle of life, Forty 
years ago the road passed through a barren and uncultivated 
country, but the hand of civilization, under the changes made 
in the condition of the people, had converted the sterile and 
barren lands into blooming and profitable agricultural gardens. 
Every possible spot was cultivated. The changes were 
marked and striking ; yet the anxious traveller recognised 
many a point known to the eye of childhood. The blue top 
of Benachee, the spire of a country kirk, the turret, of some 
old castle, the winding course of some babbling brook, all 
spoke to him of the past as the coach rolled along to that 
point to which now every emotion of his heart was centring. 
As the horses pressed forward up the eminence to the south 
of Keith, a single glance revealed the very hill, fringed with 
green fields, with a burn flowing at either end, where he had 
caught and felt the first pulsations of existence and intellect. 
He was a boy again ; he thought his heart would burst, but 
imbibing a deep suspiration he quenched the fires in his bosom. 
The road here passed through a deep ravine as it leads to the 
town. The small houses, with the dates of the foundation 
upon them, the narrow, paved streets looked oddly enough, 
and as the coach stopped at the door of the " Gordon Arms," 
he descended and stood amid the scenes of his early home. 

Mr. Bennett has no little difficulty in restraining his natural 
emotions of feeling and tenderness, but his powerful will, when 
stimulated by his judgment, in which pride has some sway, 
usually guides him to a course that shows self-command. 
Instead of hastening at once to his relatives, he ate at the 
hotel a luncheon, and nerved himself to take part in the 
interesting scenes upon which he was about to enter. 

In a short time, the strong emotions which had controlled 
him were hushed into the methodical calmness of the intellect, 
and he started to cross the water of the Isla, that little branch 
of the Deveron, which empties itself into the Murray Firth, 
at Peterhead, celebrated for its springs in the days of Mr. 



THE OLD PLACES OF NEW MILL. 243 

Bennett's boyhood. He passed down the street of Keith 
towards New Mill, the distance of a mile, and by the very spot 
where once he went to school. Wonderfully had everything 
changed, even the people themselves. In 1800 New Mill had 
only one hundred and thirty-four inhabitants, and ten years 
after, it had precisely the same number. Indeed the whole 
town, including the old, or Kirk town, New Keith, New Town 
of New Mill, and New Mill, in that decade, had only varied 
the number of its population by four souls. Now all had 
changed. There were no enclosures in his youth, but an 
enterprising people seemed to have taken the place in charge, 
under more favorable auspices than marked the fcued lands 
under the Earl of Fife, though his lordship exacted few 
services from his tenantry, even during the childhood of Mr. 
Bennett. The lands and houses were much improved. New 
Mill, however, his lordship's property, was never feued, 
but only the New Town of New Mill on the north side of the 
parish. 

Well — Mr. Bennett walked along. The grass and the white 
clover sent forth an odor, " like wild honey," sweet and deli- 
cious. He looked down upon the Isla below him. There 
was the very place wherein he used to bathe at evening, in 
summer. There was the Loggie Pot, a small still cove of the 
Isla, used formerly by the flax dressers to bleach their stuffs — 
and here the intack, the head of the mill-dam, a wall or flume 
conducting the stream to the mill. The rushing waters spoke 
with a familiar murmur to him — and near by was the trouting 
ground, and the very spot where he once fought for an hour or 
more, with a school-fellow, to settle a point of honor. The 
little " burn of Kimmantie " at the left, issued from a ravine 
filled with young trees, and bubbled past to meet the embraces 
of the Isla. The sun shone mildly through a haze of thin, 
white, silvery clouds. The calm, quiet, peaceful air of the 
hills, fields, towns, houses, and everything around, seemed to 
make a very Sabbath. 

As he passed along " the foot of the blooming brae," leading 
to the old town, he met a little girl. Pointing to the houses, 



214 DUFF HOUSE. 

and pleased to hear something of the dialect of his boyhood, 
he inquired, " what is the name of that place ?" 

" The ould toon, sir !" 

The reply and the accent delighted him, and as he looked 
at her again smiling with the recollection of the old time, he 
asked — 

" What's the matter with your foot, my girl ?" 

" I've a saer tae." 

" Here's something to heal it." 

And so saying he passed a small coin into the hand of the 
girl, who, after looking at him with the utmost astonishment, 
bounded out of his sight with the vitality of a young ante- 
lope. 

Mr. Bennett went on. The Pilgrim was near the Shrine. 
"When he had left this spot years ago, Duff House, or the house 
of the Laird of Braco, built on an extensive lawn, around which 
the Deveron glided beautifully, was adorned externally with 
shrubberies and plantations of forest trees, and the bridge of 
seven arches, at the commencement of this century, was erected 
by the government, just at the foot of the garden belonging to 
this elegant seat of luxury and refinement. The old house of 
Glengarry and Earn Park were then there, and he had 
clambered over the ruins of the dismantled edifice a thousand 
times, and threaded through the woods of the Park so often as 
to know every tree. There he had listened to all the melody of 
the grove. A rich green field was the only record of their former 
existence, when the simple peasantry of those regions lived in 
Highland frugality and industry, under the eye of the " gude- 
man" of the noble mansion, of which the hundreds of windows 
and massive walls were constructed after a beautiful design to 
be seen in a volume known as Woolf 's " Vitruvius." 

Mr. Bennett ascended the rising ground, in search of a 
relative. He was at the garden gate. He went into the 
house without knocking, and stood before his aunt. She 
looked at him for a few moments, but recognised not a face 
she had seen before. He smiled — she knew him at once ! 

" God bless me ! Na, weel then ! Eh ! now ! Weel, I 



COSMO AND THE CATHOLICS. 245 

never would have kent you — Grod bless me ! You're so much 
altered — but for your laugh I would not have known you." 

He sat down. He could not reply, or speak for some time. 

" I kent you as soon as you laughed," said she, almost cry- 
ing for joy. And Mr. Bennett well may have thought that there 
is " something in the smile of the human face that never 
changes." He did not know her, either, when he first looked 
at her, her cheeks were fuller and more ruddy, and she was 
stouter than when he saw her in his boyhood. When she 
smiled, however, he knew it was his aunt. 

" How stout you have got, aunty ; but where's my mother ? 
How is her health 1 How are the two girls — my sisters 1 
How is uncle !" 

Before any replies could be given, his mother, followed by 
his two sisters, came in from their own residence close by, for 
they had discovered his coming. It had been a long separa- 
tion till then. The vicissitudes of life had been many — but 
there was an age of joy in that moment. The mother seized 
him tenderly by both hands, looked into his face, kissed him, 
and fell upon his neck, weeping like a child. There was an 
arm-chair on the floor. 

" Bless me, mother," said he, " how old you do look ! How 
is your health 1 Sit down — sit down ! How old you do 
look !" 

" Twenty-three years," said she, " since I saw you — and in 
that time your father and brother have died — is enough to 
make me look old." 

The sound of a mother's voice no man can forget, but the 
reference to his brother almost overwhelmed him. If he ever 
loved aught in the shape of man, it was his brother Cosmo. 
When they were at school together, they had made their very 
studies their amusements, and would play over their tasks. 
His brother was educated for the Catholic Church, but by 
following the rules of that establishment, he was destroyed in 
the very prime of life. At twenty years of age, he was an 
excellent Hebrew, Greek, and Latin scholar. As a student he 
was very proficient. As a poet, as a philosopher, as a genius 



246 A SERIOUS THREAT. 

full of natural wit, brilliancy, and profound learning, he was 
admirable. Mr Bennett had hoped to have him as an asso- 
ciate editor in bringing about the great reform and regene- 
ration that began with the close of the last war with England. 
He received his death-blow in the College of Angelites, where 
he was educated. 

In the course of the evening, the letters of Cosmo were 
placed in his hands. He read them. The blood flushed his 
face, as it always does when he is moved by strong emotions. 
He arose, walked, stamped, and knew not what to do. The 
circle gazed on him with astonishment. 

" Do not be surprised at my conduct, sister," said he ; " no 
one can understand the loss of my brother but myself. You 
loved him as a brother — my mother, as a son — but I always 
looked upon him as my confidential associate in one of the 
mightiest intellectual enterprises ever yet attempted — that of 
carrying the newspaper press to one of the highest points of 
power, literature, philosophy, and refinement. In my absence 
from New York he would have had the whole management of 
my paper. Our hearts, and thoughts, and feelings, and bud- 
ding purposes, had grown up together from nothingness to 
deep and abiding impulse. For the negligence that led to his 
death, my holy mother, the Church, must suffer some, and by 
my hands. See, if she don't." 

This remarkable language was scarcely understood ; and 
fearing that his mother, who was a rigid, but amiable and 
tolerant Catholic, would misunderstand him, as many thousands 
do on many subjects which he touches, he turned the tide by 
saying that he paid sixteen pounds sterling a year for the 
rental of a pew in St. Peter's Church. 

" You have," said she, brightening ; " and I suppose you 
would place me in the head of it, if I were there." 

" You should have the whole of it, mother ; for I have never 
been there yet to take possession." 

" Pay so much as that ?" 

" Yes," he replied, " I support the clergy, both Catholic and 
Protestant — but in my own way." 



HOME OF CHILDHOOD. 247 

In this way time flew on. He had enjoyed himself beyond 
measure ; and all the slanders of the United States could not 
have disturbed the joyous hours experienced in the precincts 
of Strath Isla. When weary of talking, he would roam into 
the open air. He went around the town — up the hill, through 
the glen, and played the boy again. He inquired about all the 
old localities, and visited as many as were near at hand. As 
he stood with his uncle on a heathy eminence, and gave 
vent to his thoughts, as the top of Bannock Hill— Knock 
Hill to the east, Belrinnes to the west, and the heathy moor to 
the north, associate^ themselves in the landscape with the 
waters of Isla — 

" There," he said, " is the little village, and the auld town. 
This narrow, picturesque vale, is the scene of my infancy and 
childhood. Here I felt the first throb of existence. Here is 
the first school I entered, and there is the water in which I 
used to- lave my young limbs. This place, at this moment, is 
the only acquaintance I have with Scotland. Beyond these 
hills, all is a- foreign land to my heart and soul. I have only 
two homes and two places to which my heart is bound. New 
York and New Mill both fill my bosom — the one the scene of 
my manhood, the other of my childhood. How happy I feel 
to see you here again ; but I could not live here a month. 
New York is the centre of a great empire, embracing within its 
circumference even this little vale of innocence and simplicity 
— it is the empire of mind, intellect, and civilization, which 
laughs at any and all the ever changing forms of government. 
The freest, most liberal, most original, most unique city of the 
age is New York. To a man of original intellect there is more 
happiness enjoyed in one day in New York, than in a thousand 
in London, even with all the wealth and grandeur of the latter. 
I care nothing for this or that form of government : aristocracy, 
democracy, monarchy, do not vary so much in results as people 
think. The real government of a civilized age is a free, un- 
shackled press, conducted by genius and talent." 

But there was a necessity to terminate his visit at the end of 
the second day. It was evening, and seated in the family 



248 SELF-EXILED AGAIN. 

group, at his mother's residence, he was completing the account 
of his life's history, when suddenly he exclaimed — 

" There ! It is ten o'clock. Well, I must go now." 

Then the tears began to flow. Annie, Margaret, his aunt, 
and his mother all wept to think that there was to be an end to 
that happy meeting — to that symposium of the heart and the 
affections. 

" Don't — don't do so — don't," he said, nearly overcome by 
his own feelings, " don't be weeping," and with a laugh he 
endeavored to cheer them. " I'll come and see you again 
next summer, and I'll stay a week with you then." 

At length he separated himself from the aunt, the sisters, 
and lastly from the mother, and was on his way, accompanied 
by two uncles and a cousin who walked to Keith with him. 
There he took the coach, turning once more his back on the 
beautiful vale of his childhood. Fatigued by the series of 
strong emotions which had agitated him for several days, 
nature soon gave the balmy veil of slumber to his eyes, and 
he rested till the coach in the morning entered Aberdeen. In 
the afternoon he was at Perth, and it was not till then, that, 
being alone, in the chamber of the inn, he dared to recall the 
recent scenes, the parting looks and affectionate accents of his 
sisters and mother. The twilight harmonized with the very 
hue of his spirit, as the whole picture impressed itself upon his 
mind. He felt as if his heart would break in pieces, and unable 
longer to suppress his emotions, he flung himself upon the bed 
and wept himself to sleep, from which he did not awake for 
twelve hours. In the morning he was on his way to Glasgow, 
to renew his intercourse with the toilsome world with which all 
men who achieve great results must wrestle. 

It is well to remember that the devotion of Mr. Bennett tc 
his mother has ever been an abiding affection in his bosom. 
In the course of his editorial life, and in the midst of every 
species of injustice and slander, he frequently has turned his 
thoughts towards her and his home, and strengthened himself 
with the reflections suggested by a mother's love, to which he 
offers the annexed beautiful tribute. 



INFLUENCE OF A MOTHER. 249 

" The vice, the immorality, the pride, the folly which fill a 
had world arise from a narrow system of education. Why 
have I been preserved from the contagion of the age ? Because 
the earliest impulses of the heart were trained by a mother, on 
the principles of the strictest morality and religion, and the 
intellect, the person, the physical man, left perfectly untram- 
melled, perfectly unclaimed. After the Almighty himself, the 
next being to whom a man is indebted for his talent, genius, 
imagination, heart, affections, is a frail, feeble woman — a 
mother ! Plant in the human heart the elements of moral 
truth, mingled with the beautiful mysteries of a poetical faith, 
and the intellectual building cannot be ruined — cannot shake 
m the earthquake of doubt. Moral and religious sentiment 
has been the corner-stone in the character of every great 
benefactor, every great genius, every great being that the 
world ever saw. Intellect, refinement, science, art, philosophy, 
all are founded on the first instincts of the heart — and the 
heart is created by a mother." 

Mr. Bennett remained only a day or two in Glasgow, col- 
lecting there, as elsewhere, such books and pamphlets on the 
trade and currency in England and Scotland as would facili- 
tate his labors in the future. He embarked upon the Clyde 
for Liverpool, arriving there on the 13th of July, and remain- 
ed till near the close of the month. In this brief space he 
was very active, and collected much valuable information 
with respect to commercial and financial topics. 

Early in August he was in Paris, where he made his mind 
familiar with every topic that could be useful to him as a 
journalist. On the 5th of September he was in London again, 
having visited an old New York friend, a physician, at Brigh- 
ton — one who had boarded with him at Mrs. Mann's fashiona- 
ble house in Broadway in the years 1830-33. He remained 
in the Great Metropolis till the middle of the month to com- 
plete his arrangements, which were of a character at that time 
far surpassing anything known to the Press in the United 
States. He had established competent correspondents in the 
great cities of the old world, the results of whose tact and 

11* 



250 ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE HERALD. 

industry were seen soon after in the columns of the Herald, 
and with which the world has become so well acquainted that 
it is needless to dwell longer on the subject. During his 
absence of five months from the United States, he wrote 
voluminously with his own hand a journal containing accounts 
of his travels, and of his information secured in every visit, 
besides a series of very interesting letters of no ordinary 
importance to the commercial world, and entertaining to the 
million. 

On the 20th of September he sailed for New York .in the 
Royal "William steamer, and arrived October 10th, having 
travelled ten thousand miles over water and land, freighting 
his mind all the while with the fruits of experience, gathered 
by a perseverance at once admirable in example and profitable 
in its uses. It is impossible in these pages to do justice to his 
worthy labors, and no one who has not traced his course with 
a patient watchfulness will ever comprehend the extent of that 
industry which it is a pleasurable duty to commend, not merely 
for its own worthiness, but as a solemn answer to the misre- 
presentations and rumors of the past which would abridge the 
literary as well as industrious exertions of so remarkable a 
man. There was good faith and earnestness displayed towards 
his readers. His correspondence was established at a large 
expense, and every necessary effort was made to arrange the 
machinery for dispatching news for the Herald so that no 
competition could surpass its promptitude. 

Before Mr. Bennett arrived, an event had taken place which 
was quite important to the commercial world. It was the first 
movement made to establish an American line of steamers 
between the port of Philadelphia and Liverpool and London 
Nicholas Biddle presided at a meeting on the subject, August 
23rd — but the sagacious speed of the Herald at once started 
the capitalists of New York to consider the topic. Its Ian 
guage was strong and to the point. It said : 

" Although New York cannot have the high honor of calling 
the first meeting, let her have the honor of laying the first 
keel of the first regular Atlantic line of steamships. Never lei 



ASPIRATIONS AND RESOLUTIONS. 251 

it be said in after times, that New York stood second to any 
city in the Union in this immeasurably important matter. 
Let a meeting be called for Monday, let resolutions be drafted, 
plans concocted, shares subscribed for, money paid down, keels 
laid down, in short, let us right off the reel, take the lead in 
Atlantic steam navigation, and keep it. It is a theme worthy 
of the most serious attention, and the most powerful assistance, 
that our general government can consistently give it." 

It is almost useless to say that New York went to sleep 
over this suggestion for many a long day, but the Herald 
wrote history in advance of Wall street, as it has done many 
a time and oft, since then. Were there less of the merest 
gambling in the money mart, and more risks taken in enter- 
prises of real utility, the censures of the philosopher would be 
less reasonable than they now are against operations in the 
vicinity of the Exchange ! 

During the early part of the winter of this year, and soon 
after his return from Europe, Mr. Bennett revised his entire 
establishment, and made preparations for an improvement in 
the future. Besides the six correspondents secured as regular 
contributors in Europe, he devised means to engage reliable 
ones in many of the important cities of the United States, in 
Texas, Mexico, and Canada — and he contemplated visiting 
Washington, there to prepare for his readers a series of letters, 
somewhat in the style of those which he wrote from that city 
some years before. In all this, the inquiring reader will per- 
ceive the restless activity of the man who thus addressed his 
readers. 

'•' For my own poor self, it is my pride and delight to be an 
independent man, and to wield an independent press. I never 
can be anything else but the creature of independence. I mean 
to show the world that a resolute heart, guided by a calm, 
thinking mind, can create a power and wield an influence 
beyond the reach of all factions and all parties. My career in 
this city has, thus far, been a contest between mind and party 
— mind and mere wealth — mind and empty pretension. I have 
been persecuted for that very independence ; but the time is 



252 WITH THE PEOPLE. 

now come for a reaction. I care nothing for any party, or any 
set of men ; but I value morals, intelligence, and the love of 
country wherever it can be found." 

The reader may be assured that in this paragraph he has a 
clearer opportunity of seeing the real, undisguised feeling and 
character of James Gordon Bennett, than in any other he ever 
wrote in the Herald upon political subjects ; and as his policy 
is not to be a Warwick, so much as it is to prove a terror to 
professional politicians, and a protection to the people, there is 
a solution to the question why it is that he is on the successful 
side on almost every occasion of importance. He once said, 
privately, " I wish never to be more than a day in advance of 
the people." In that expression lies the secret of his editorial 
success. It is the secret of the success of the London Times, 
and of every other independent journal throughout the world ; 
and it is the only way that any real influence can be obtained and 
held with the people, who permit it to sway them, because 
they know that money or private interests can have no effect 
contrary to the public voice. It is this, and this alone, that 
produces confidence in the minds of the masses. The inde- 
pendent press that stands aloof from all cliques and parties, 
therefore, is more powerful than all the political alliances and 
bartering of factions. 



THE HARRISON PROPHECY. 253 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Near the beginning of 1839, Mr. Bennett, in order to become 
acquainted with the views of the public men of the country, 
and to perfect his arrangements for the Herald, made a Southern 
tour. At Philadelphia, in January, he had an interview with 
Nicholas Biddle, at the Bank of the United States, where he 
obtained valuable facts connected with the financial machinery 
of the country. At this time he found Mr. Biddle as much 
opposed to a new National Bank as Mr. Van Buren himself ! 

Mr. Bennett passed nearly a week in Baltimore, also, glean- 
ing all available information from every point, and then pro- 
ceeded to Washington, where he visited the old haunts of his 
literary life, when he was the correspondent of the New York 
Enquirer, in 1827, and of the Courier and Enquirer, in 1831. 
He called, also, on President Van Buren, who cordially received 
him, notwithstanding he had quizzed the Magician so many 
hundred times. With respect to the re-election of Mr. Van 
Buren, he thus wrote : 

" If Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, and all their friends and 
retainers, would go in, heart and hand, for General Harrison, 
there is not a doubt of carrying Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, 
and, perchance, New York. I do not. wish to see Mr. Van 
Buren re-elected — not because I have any personal hostility to 
him, but because I think that he and his party have indicated 
a spirit of enmity to the civilization of the age. The defeat of 
that party for at least four years would produce a salutary 
effect upon the morals, the ideas, and the temper of politicians. 
I am perfectly satisfied that neither Mr. Clay nor Mr. Webster 
is the man, whatever the political intriguers of the Whig party 



254 REPUBLIC OF TEXAS, 

inay say and swear. I speak the sober, rational convictions of 
an unbiassed mind, for I have no favor to ask of any party. 
I cannot be mistaken in the signs I see around me." 

If any man doubt Mr. Bennett's political sagacity — though 
sometimes it has been sadly at fault, in consequence of the 
excitements of a sanguine temperament — he has here a proof of 
it. All this has now become history. 

Mr. Bennett, while at Washington, displayed his wonted 
activity and industry. In addition to collecting facts from 
many of the prominent men in that city, he organized his corps 
of correspondents, provided himself with many valuable Go- 
vernment documents, attended most of the fashionable parties 
of the season, and wrote, with his own hand, fifty-six long and 
interesting letters for the Herald. He remained till the termi- 
nation of the twenty-fifth Congress, that session when the Maine 
Boundary question came before the people with remarkable 
force, calling out the celebrated threat of Daniel Webster, which 
at that time was construed into a determination for a war with 
Great Britain. 

The anticipated war between France and Mexico, also, 
attracted much attention at the time, and was leading to 
important events, particularly as the republic of Texas, under 
Sam Houston's remarkable political skill and advice, was 
making rapid strides in her career towards an important future, 
both for herself and the United States. 

On these and kindred topics of public interest, the leading 
articles of the Herald loomed above the waste of sparkling, 
yeasty badinage and fun by which they were surrounded, as 
beacon lights in the political storm. They were not lost sight 
of in the mingled variety of objects — but produced a good effect, 
guiding men to safe and peaceful havens. And thus through 
the year, the columns of the Herald, on the whole, promoted 
the general welfare of society ; and even by those portions of it 
which were wisely condemned as too free in expression, and 
beneath the approval of good taste, society was taught to 
abandon the mere assumption of external appearances for the 
exercise of substantial virtues, which were in danger, not so 



CHARACTER OF PUBLIC TASTE. 255 

much from the Herald, as from a laxity in public and political 
morality. Men in public stations walked the streets, in the 
broad glare of day, who were known to have plundered largely 
the public treasuries ; and those whose business it was to inves- 
tigate the deeds of public men and political parties, wonder- 
ed not so much at the expositions made, as they did that, to save 
friends and families from ignominy, facts showing private and 
public corruption were withheld from the knowledge of the 
people. What the Herald was, and what it might have been, 
had it not waited for men to condemn themselves, is a matter 
for conjecture by those who are unaware of the concealments 
then made of the profligacy of the times — which would have 
been continued and increased, had not one man in the commu- 
nity, standing not above the people, as a preacher — but on a 
level with them, as a worker, proclaimed to wickedness in 
high places, that there existed a free press, and a journalist 
independent enough to brave all consequences for the sake of 
society and his country — one who did not select the sword of 
an avenging reformer, but who used precisely such weapons as 
were best calculated in his opinion to do execution at the 
moment. Persons who had friends to screen, or follies in life 
to hide, certainly were alarmed, and the hue and cry once raised 
against the Herald, persons who did not judge for themselves 
— and who were not acquainted with the policy by which its 
Editor was producing a reformation in the community, were 
ready to condemn such a novelty in literature. The Editor, 
however, was not discouraged in his course. He knew that up 
to this time, even, the public were without taste to seek a jour- 
nal for good thoughts gracefully spoken. He knew they were 
more ready to seek six columns of the details of a brutal mur- 
der, or of testimony in a divorce case, or the trial of a divine 
for improprieties of conduct, than the same amount of words 
poured forth by the genius of the noblest author of the times. 
It may be said that this is no excuse for gratifying such a taste. 
Nobody but a dreamer over the realities of life will maintain 
such ground. There was but an alternative — all power over 
the public mind would have been lost, and the Press would 



256 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATIONS. 

liave remained the mere engine of trick and trade that it always 
had been — a tool in the hands of those who ruled the offices 
of public trust, the public money, and the very suffrages of the 
people. Freedom would have been but a word — a delusion, 
as it had been, and as it continued to be down to 1848, when 
a spirit opposed to the wretched contrivances of the two old 
parties, stole healthfully and gradually through the public 
mind. The election of General Taylor virtually proclaimed 
the extinction of the ancient dynasties, and the establishment 
of a party germ, a chief feature of which eventually will be 
uncompromising hostility to every trading or professed politi- 
cian — and, perhaps, compulsory voting by every citizen, or a 
fine for not giving a few moments of life to the duties a citizen 
owes towards the preservation of the country from the conspi- 
racies of political leaders. 

It seemed the design and wish of Mr. Bennett to secure the 
nomination of General Winfield Scott, in opposition to Mr. Van 
Buren ; and the columns of the Herald were pressed in that 
direction for many months, notwithstanding Mr. Bennett, while 
at Washington, had started the nomination of General Harri- 
son — which either he had overlooked, or saw reason to aban- 
don, from one of those unaccountable causes so difficult to 
explain satisfactorily. It is proper to state that he was not 
opposed to General Harrison. Up to the close of 1839, he 
made great exertions in favor of Scott, but his efforts were 
unavailing. Yet had he been nominated, and his election to the 
Presidency been secured in the place of Harrison, what a 
different future would have resulted to the country, particularly 
with respect to Texas and to Mexico ! Vain, however, are 
conjectures of this kind. The destinies of nations, as of indivi- 
duals, are directed by a Power that baffles the cunning and 
the pride of man. 

The Herald, in 1839, had a degree of influence everywhere 
in Europe and at home, that had increased rapidly with its 
growth and skill. In four years it had acquired a circulation 
equal to that of the London Times, and was respected for its 
valuable statistics and thoughts by commercial men and states- 



MURDERS IN NEW YORK. 257 

men, while its idiosyncrasies in literature and in social life 
kept it, in spite of the most determined opposition, under the 
eye of the fashionable and of the middling classes. It was 
adroitly managed to produce the effects desired — notwithstand- 
ing the latitude taken by some of its writers, and even by the 
Editor himself — a latitude which he defended on the ground of its 
uses, which were many and obvious, at least to his own mind, 
and which an apologist could find a theory apparently strong 
to justify. These pages will not do it. The most that will 
be said is to palliate, in view of the singular condition of 
society in New York, where within the year public justice had 
been dethroned by political influences operating upon the pro- 
tection of criminals, and it was almost impossible for the arm 
of the law to reach a culprit, unless he was wholly friendless. 
As matters of record, not to substantiate assertion with cited 
proof in this volume, some reference may be made to facts. 
In less than two years, from 1838 to the close of 1839, there 
were six murders and no convictions for the offences — a German 
girl was murdered on the Battery — a stevedore had his throat 
cut and his body thrown into the East River — a man, in broad 
day-light, was slain by negroes in Anthony street — Dr. 
M'Oaffrey was knocked from his gig, and killed by some one, 
in the same street — Leuba, a watchman, was assassinated in 
the Bowery — an unoffending man was murdered in the Third 
Avenue, and another man in Cross street. Never was there a 
city more carelessly or weakly governed, and thus it continued 
for some years. 

This, too, was a period of defalcations and of absconding 
officers in every part of the country, showing a looseness of 
public morals, that had grown out of political and financial 
corruption, not so much improved to-day as to be cause of 
congratulation or of repose. A list of some of the most pro- 
minent of the defalcations exhibits that this sad condition of 
things was not sectional, or local, and had increased lamenta- 
bly within a brief period. The public treasury had been 
plundered of about twenty millions of dollars within a few 
years. 



258 SARATOGA SPRINGS. 

When there was a requirement for the serious treatment of 
a subject, it received the proper attention at Mr. Bennett's 
hands, and if the peculiar style in which he chose to convey 
his thoughts be set aside as the method of his policy merely, 
it is found that in the mass of curious words which connect his 
thoughts together, there are sentiments and opinions which will 
do credit to any heart or head. The qualities of the satirist, it 
must be admitted, are very palpable, and it is difficult often to 
comprehend what the precise purpose of the writer may be, or 
if he have any purpose whatever, but this much is certain — the 
public mind is awakened by the mode in which the theme is 
presented, and it cannot be shaken off till the reasoning facul- 
ties are aroused by the grotesque manner in which it is brought 
into view. This, however, is not the place to enter into an 
analysis of Mr. Bennett's mind. It is better, for the present, 
to see what he is doing with his darling Herald. 

President Van Buren is about to .make a tour from Washing- 
ton to the North. Mr. Bennett is impulsive, but his impulses 
are usually directed to some practical end. He must not be 
out of fashion, and it is all important that the newspaper shall 
go everywhere whither the people or Fashion's votaries go. 
After having taken a trip to Boston, by the way of Provi- 
dence, for the purpose as he said of seeing the Allston Gallery 
of paintings, but really to look after the machinery for 
distributing the Herald with more effect, he returns about the 
middle of July, and after firing a few guns to awaken the 
people and particularly his old friend Saul Alley, who is 
arranging for the cost of the Oroton Aqueduct, prepares to 
visit Saratoga. He goes by the steamer up the Hudson, leaving 
the city on Saturday morning, and thinks he has been pretty 
speedy to arrive at the Springs in time to go to church on 
Sunday, to hear Mr. Bethune's sermon. Most persons visit 
Saratoga to waste the best hours of summer — Mr. Bennett is 
wiser. He goes there to work. There he sees hundreds of 
persons, and obtains a knowledge of society and of themes for 
public use. He sees Mr. Cunard, who is just announcing his 
proposed line of British steamers, now the admiration of twc 



HARTFORD — CONNECTICUT. 259 

worlds, and, in his quiet and unobtrusive way, the Editor 
receives the salutations and listens to the conversations of 
many of the distinguished sojourners in the place. Mr. Van 
Buren is there, Mr. Clay, General Scott and others, all of 
whom know him, not alone by the Herald, but by his intimate 
association with the politics of the country, his connection with 
which they fear, because he will not give them a clue by 
which to comprehend him. It was the third of August when 
he arrived, and there were no newspapers there on Mondays. 
He takes care that the Herald shall be there in future ; and 
having thus introduced a strong wedge for his paper, he 
follows it up with strong blows in the shape of fourteen elabo- 
rate letters on Life at the Springs. Everybody at the Springs 
will now know that there is a newspaper published in New 
York that fashionable people will be amused by — and they 
seldom crave anything more in the shape of literature. On the 
18th of August he is at his post again; at work five minutes 
after his arrival, and busy as a bee in summer ; and, like him, 
with a sting for any one who tries to interfere with his industry, 
or to abridge the amount of honey going into his hive ! 

In September Mr. Bennett went to Hartford, and there per- 
fected as far as possible the arrangements for the distribution 
of his paper punctually, taking occasion to visit the places in 
that growing city which have commanded so much of the 
attention of tourists and travellers. He made himself acquainted 
with the tone of society there, which, in those days was ele- 
vated, but in some respects peculiar — marked by external re- 
straints and customs at war with every natural impulse of the 
human mind, and producing upon the young anything but a 
healthful preparation for the scenes of life in gayer cities, 
whither a large proportion of them were accustomed to emigrate. 
That beautiful city, under more liberal views and with its 
increased population, has now become one of the most delight- 
ful places for a residence known to New England, and is so 
important in its commercial character as to be popular with 
those who seek to invest capital. Indeed, many of the towns 
on the Connecticut River have improved rapidly since railroad 



260 SUSPENSION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS. 

enterprises have increased the facilities for transporting the 
productions of rural districts. 

The suspension of specie payments by the United States 
Bank, and the Philadelphia banks, in October, 1839, with the 
threatened results of that movement upon the credit of the 
country abroad, formed a theme of uncommon interest for Mr. 
Bennett, who, more than any other editor in this country, has 
devoted unwearied attention to the true commercial and finan- 
cial interests, not of a class, but of the people. That he is 
supported by facts, or the most profound reasoning, in the 
conclusions at which he has frequently arrived, on the free 
trade and tariff questions, will not be maintained. These 
pages enter not on such disputes ; but it may be said, that, 
without any profession for the interests of any single class of 
the people — without any pretensions to a zealous patriotism in 
behalf of the multitude — he has yielded his own views to the 
popular will, for the sake of experiment, when he was not fully 
convinced that a great ultimate danger would be the conse- 
quence. In this he is not singular. Within a dozen years the 
world has seen the British government, with Sir Robert Peel 
at its head, find it expedient — in view of the dangers frowning 
under a subscription of ten millions of pounds sterling by the 
Anti-Corn-Law League — to grant free trade to the British 
manufacturers, nearly the whole opinion of the country and of 
the Press wheeling into that line in the course of a single 
night ! The public economists of the last century have not the 
same influence over the minds of statesmen, or upon Mr. Ben- 
nett, that they once had. Their systems were beheld almost 
solely from monarchical stand-points, and are, as a whole, 
totally unfitted to guide the march of financial affairs on this 
continent. No matter for this point, however. That which 
should be understood as distinguishing Mr. Bennett — for brevity 
insists that this subject shall be dismissed in this chajDter — was 
the influence of his journal on the interests of American affairs 
abroad, during that space of years when the state and corpora- 
tion credits of this country were at a cipher throughout Europe 
■ — and little better at home. 



CENSURES ON THE BANKERS. 261 



CHAPTER XX 



Early in 1840, Mr. Bennett continued to make a close 
examination of the condition and action of the Philadelphia 
banks which had suspended specie payments in the preceding 
August for the second time. His treatment of the whole sub- 
ject was severe, but marked by strict justice. It brought 
upon him, however, the censure of anonymous Philadelphia 
writers, who used every species of reproach that words could 
express. It did not injure the Herald's circulation in that city, 
for the humble portion of the community approved of his 
course. Indeed, they expressed it by raising the circulation 
of the paper there, from one hundred to one thousand copies. 
After republishing in his own journal, one of the most infamous 
attacks upon himself, Mr. Bennett added : 

" Although we had, and still have, the most friendly personal 
relations with Mr. Biddle, Mr. Jaudon, and Mr. Humphreys, 
of Liverpool, yet we never permitted the friendship and personal 
esteem for these amiable men for one moment to cloud our 
mind as to the character of the movement of which the United 
States Bank became the instigator and patron. We have 
expressed the sense of an honest and upright heart upon all 
the bank movements of Philadelphia, from the first suspension 
up to the recent expose of the Schuylkill Bank. Hostility to 
Pennsylvania or to Philadelphia, as such, never crossed our 
mind for a moment. We are only hostile to dishonesty and 
fraud, whether it be generated in New York or Philadelphia, 
We have treated the bank frauds of New York with the same 
severity that we have ever treated those of Philadelphia. In 
every instance, in this state, we have been the first to sound 



262 CONTEST FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 

the alarm of bank mismanagement, and for this watchfulness 
and industry in the cause of public morals, we have received a 
support and a patronage unparalleled in the annals of the New 
York press." 

Never in this century was there a more just cause for hos- 
tility to the measures of financiers than at that time, and no 
man will deny that if the moral sense of the better part of the 
community had not been sustained and put in action, a blow 
would have been struck at the financial credit of this country 
from which it would not yet have recovered. 

On the 11th of January, Mr. Bennett was in Philadelphia, 
on his way to Washington, whither he was going to arrange 
the preliminaries to run a daily express from the Capitol, one 
day in advance of the mail. He was not idle in this excursion 
— but wrote letters on finance, having discovered at Philadel- 
phia the secret history of the bank manoeuvres which were 
perplexing and astounding the public. He returned to com- 
ment on the loss of the Lexington steamer, destroyed by fire 
on the night of the 13th of January, in Long Island Sound, 
when Dr. Follen of Cambridge, Henry J. Finn, the celebrated 
writer and comedian, and about a hundred other persons 
perished. His censures induced capitalists to esteem the lives 
of passengers in public conveyances as superior to all conside- 
rations of pelf or profit, so far that greater facilities were pro- 
vided for escape in cases of disaster. 

The chief political topic of the country in 1840, was that 
involved in the contest for the Presidency. The people had 
become heartily tired of the manner in which the National 
government had been administered at the hands of its demo- 
cratic rulers — and a complete revolution seemed necessary to 
bring about a settlement of the chaotic disturbance in which 
commerce, finance, and labor had been floating for several 
years. William H. Harrison was selected as the most availa- 
ble candidate to overthrow the diplomatic skill of Mr. Van 
Buren. On him a popular enthusiasm, it was found, could be 
excited. To this end the poets of the country were set to work 
to make songs in honor of the hero of Tippecanoe and hard 



THE MORAL WAR. 263 

cider, log cabins, and border life. Quite a general excitement 
was kept up through the whole political campaign upon this 
most meagre foundation, and he was elected to the Presidency. 

The Herald had much to do with this election, and kept 
pace with the enthusiasm of the times. It astonished newspa- 
perdom. Its reports of the speeches at Patchogue, in Wall 
Street, and other localities, were given to the public with a 
fulness and with a speed never known before to the Press. 
The credit of the establishment for enterprise was fixed by 
these successful efforts, particularly when considered in con- 
nection with the fact that almost every week it surpassed all 
the other journals with the " latest news." 

Such success could not but excite envy. Accordingly, anta- 
gonists began to gather all the terrible energies which selfish- 
ness could animate for a renewal of ancient hostilities — and 
men were so weak as to suppose that, by the force of their own 
desires, they could carry out their nefarious and tyrannical 
designs, particularly as they seemed to be sustained by those 
unprincipled cliques of politicians with whom neither character 
nor' truth — neither honor nor honesty — avails anything as a 
barrier to acts prompted by the most degrading and ignoble 
passions. 

Although within five years after the Herald was commenced, 
not less than six Wall Street journals were discontinued, and 
in the course of its envied career, not less than twenty daily 
newspapers were projected, published, and permitted to perish 
for lack of public favor, persons occasionally embark capital 
in similar enterprises, and rash editors still endeavor to gain 
glory by censuring the Herald, and affecting superiority to Mr. 
Bennett in knowledge, taste, and judgment — the only proof 
given being a few caustic personalities, or sweeping censures, 
wholly aimless and valueless, which never persuade the public 
that the world is to be astonished by any remarkable depth 
of learning, or any uncommon display of genius. 

The first formidable attempt to make a moral war against 
Mr. Bennett was in 1837. It was incited by the fact that the 
Herald was opposed to the insertion of Joseph Hoxie's name on 



264 STATE OF THE OPPOSITION. 

the Whig ticket. Not a word was said concerning politics, but 
there were a thousand homilies on morality. In 1838 a second 
attempt was made, and actions at law were urged on, with the 
evident desire to cripple the increasing influence of the journal. 

In 1840 a third and general combination was excited, which 
proceeded even so far in its spirit of aggression, as to threaten 
public proscription to those who should be so independent as to 
advertise in the columns of the Herald. This was called " the 
Moral War." It was conducted with vindictive pertinacity, 
by the strongest alliance of spleen, passion, folly, and intellect 
ever known in the history of Journalism, for such a purpose. 
Never was there arranged a more determined or extensive 
machinery to destroy the position and prospects of one man, 
at least by means of the small musketry of words, and the 
heavier artillery of opinions and denunciation. It was based 
upon the supposition that the city of New York was controlled 
to a great degree in its judgments by the newspapers, the 
editors of which could not rest in consequence of the success 
of the Herald, while their own journals received comparatively 
little favor. They were chagrined and maddened to see jocose, 
quizzing, and lampooning paragraphs maintaining favor in the 
public mind, while then own carefully written, and sometimes 
brilliant essays, were wholly neglected. Instead of rebuking 
public taste, however, they undertook to destroy the oracle of 
it itself, stimulated to this still more zealously by perceiving 
the business tact and enterprise of their detested rival, daily 
growing powerful and popular. 

Their energy and hostility knew no bounds, and they did 
not cease their onslaughts, till they themselves had iterated 
and reiterated the entire vocabulary of intellectual blackguard- 
ism — surpassing, in many instances, by the sway given to their 
own passions, all terms of expression which could denote rage, 
envy, malignity, hostility, or cruelty. To a calm observer all 
the elements of literature seemed to be under the spell of the 
most demoniac species of wizards and witches, who seemed to 
be filling the cauldron, in order to make their charm complete, 
with every possible ugly thing that could be supposed to have 



THE MORA! LIGHTNING. 265 

the slightest potency in effecting the destruction of their victim, 
In fancy they already saw his head upon a pole, with a 
triumphant inscription beneath it. In the contest, however, 
the witches and wizards were all to be scattered, and no 
Macduff pierced the falling corse of the "heartless monster." 

The fact was that the moral elements were not strong enough 
to second successfully the intellectual prowess and perseverance 
of the assailants. They too often offended by their own con- 
duct, the better wisdom of the community, and their sincerity 
was questioned. Good men there were engaged in the contest, 
but some of the leaders in it had outraged taste and the 
feelings of humanity for years upon years, by various and well 
known deeds which are on record against the profligacy of 
Journalism between the war of 1812 and the regeneration 
ushered in by the Cheap Press. These leaders were desperate 
to overthrow a newspaper that was testing the freedom of un- 
shackled opinions, and which seemed ready to sacrifice enemies, 
were they to fall within its grasp. Of course this was quickly, 
perceived — for society has a subtle instinct in asceitaining 
motives ; and though every day the Press fulminated and 
thundered and kept the war at the utmost possible height, yet 
in New Orleans some one read the whole matter clearly enough. 
The American of that city spoke thus : 

" The War against the Herald has fallen short of its intended 
aim, while at the same time it has produced a change quite 
laudable. The moral lightning was forged by some of the 
New York editors, solely for the purpose of striking Mr. 
Bennett and his powerful press to the ground. To be sure the 
lightning missed its mark, but the thunder purified the air !" 

The truth was briefly told in the above paragraph. The 
effect of the War was salutary, although it is not correct to 
attribute the change in the Herald wholly to the attacks which 
were made upon it. Mr. Bennett was about to exchange his 
isolated life for the delights of wedlock, and it was his regard 
for the happiness of others that caused him to modify that style 
of expression which naturally enough offended cultivated minds. 
Besides, the chief object with the public was accomplished. 

12 



266 CHARGED WITH BEING A PEDLER. 

They had been taught to find something that would gratify 
their curiosity in a newspaper, which no longer was a luxury, 
as it had been to thousands, but was a necessity. There was 
no longer any reason why latitude of expression should be 
indulged in. The affected prudery of society had been cured 
of its ridiculous vanities — and a more frank and genuine 
tolerance of expression and opinion had taken the place of a 
mawkish refinement that tittered before honest English plain- 
ness in every drawing-room. The tortures to which words 
were put were often quite amusing. Limb was used for leg, 
and the Herald talked of the branches of public dancers, when 
it satirized the affectations of society. Linen became the 
synonym for shirts, and inexpressibles for pantaloons. Old- 
fashioned people scarcely knew how to open their mouths with- 
out offending the affected taste of the times. 

Mock-modesty giggled and simpered everywhere, and frank- 
ness of expression and honesty of purpose were jostled from 
the walk by a sentimentality sickening in itself, depraving the 
mind of its victim, and coaxing the unwary within the giddy 
whirl of licentiousness and vice. Mr. Bennett had interpreted 
his duty in the demands of the age, and had acted in accordance 
with his determination to reprove and reform it — running, like 
many a reformer, into the opposite extreme. The horrible vul- 
garity which insulted the refinementof his virtuous contempora- 
ries, and shocked the conventional morality of the time, may be 
found lurking in the following curt paragraph from the Herald : 

" Petticoats — petticoats — petticoats — petticoats — there — you 
fastidious fools — vent your mawkishness on that !" 

Among the virulent attacks made against Mr. Bennett while 
this " Moral War" was raging, were some fabrications as grossly 
false as ever assailed the character of a public man. The good 
nature with which he replied to some of them was such that it 
may be amusing to the reader to look at it. At one time he 
was called a foreign impostor— at another, it was said that he 
was sailing under a false name — at another, that he was once 
only a pedler in the streets of Glasgow. In reply to the latter 
charges, he said : 



THE DUCAL CORONET. 267 

" I am, and have been, a pedler — and part of my name is 
Grordon. This I admit. From my youth up I have been a 
pedler, not of tapes and laces, but of thoughts, feelings, lofty 
principles, and intellectual truths. I am now a wholesale dealer 
in the same line of business, and people generally believe I 
have quite a run, and, what is better, no dread of suspension, 
I was educated and intended for a religious sect, but the Al- 
mighty, in his wisdom, meant me for truth and mankind, and I 
will fulfil my destiny in spite of all the opposition made to me 
either in the old or new hemisphere. 

" Yes, I have been a pedler, and am still a pedler of the 
thoughts, and feelings, and high imaginings of the past and 
present ages. I peddle my wares as Homer did his — as Shak- 
speare did his — as every great intellectual and mighty pedler 
of the past did — and when I shall have finished my peddling in 
this world, I trust I shall be permitted to peddle in a better and 
happier region for ever and ever. 

" I have been a wayward, self-dependent, resolute, self- 
thinking being, from my earliest days. Yet there were iW 
planted in my burning soul those lofty principles of morals, honor, 
philosophy, and religion, that the contumely of the world cannot 
shake, or all the editors or bankers in Christendom intimidate. 
I feel myself, in this land, to be engaged in a great cause — the 
cause of truth, public faith, and science, against falsehood, fraud, 
and ignorance. I would not abandon it even to reach the glitter- 
ing coronet of the extinct title of the Duke of Gordon. I am a 
firm believer in the remarkable effects of blood and race in men, 
women, and horses, but I am also an equal votary in the faith 
of talent, in the blood of genius, in the race of lofty intellect 
and original mind. To be a friend of the human race, to sup- 
port the cause of the oppressed against the oppressor, to put 
down the vulgar aristocracy of fraudulent paper wealth by the 
noble aristocracy of talent, genius, and civil liberty itself, will 
confer a more lasting glory on my name than to entwine my 
brow with the glittering bauble of a ducal coronet, even were 
it within my reach." 

As a specimen on the other side, a hand-grenade from one of 



268 CONTEST OF WORDS. 

the enemy, with only a portion of its powder remaining in it, may 
show what vile combustibles were nsed by the moral editors ! 

" Stigma on the city — obscenity and profanity — vicious and 
depraved feelings — corrupting influences — vice and vulgar li- 
centiousness — hypocrisy, ignorance, and bloated conceit — most 
diabolical and execrable — double apostate and traitor in politics 
— liar and poltroon — played the political Iago— ^half crazy, 
uneducated wretch — slip-slop, ribald, unintellectual style — 
miserable frothy, productions — ribald ridicule and impious jests 
— immoral and blasphemous monstrosity — a vagabond who fled 
his country — wretch — pest — villain — forger, &c." 

From another source — from one of the big guns — was sent a 
shell, of which these fragments will be sufficient for any profit- 
able examination : 

" Humbug — meanness — baseness — infamous — vagabond — 
scurrility — Blackwell's Island — cell of a penitentiary — wretch 
— riot — profligacy — libelled — slandered — caricatured — enven- 
omed — wretch — scoundrel — shameless libeller and liar — grated 
window." 

Thus did Envy and Malice hurl, from their dark, vindictive 
hulls, broadside after broadside into this stately and prosperous 
craft. 

Perhaps there never was a contest of mere words on the face 
of this earth, characterized by such complete recklessness of 
expression, and indifference to the feelings of the community 
^nd tino respectability of the Press and of society, as in this 
same " Moral War." It would be a shame to waste time or 
ink in describing its detestable features farther. All that is 
demanded is to pronounce an opinion upon its merits, which 
dwell only in the results, and not in the means or motives by 
which it was protracted. That the Herald had been reckless, 
no man will deny. The fault was in the circumstances, in the 
condition and perversion of the public mind, and in the opposi- 
tion which provoked an independent spirit sometimes beyond 
the control of good taste, charity, and discretion. 

There were other causes to which history is compelled tc 
look. 



MORBID CONDITIONS. 269 

One grave charge against the Herald was, that it treated 
with unjustifiable familiarity, themes connected with the religious 
views of society. No one will question that there was some 
cause for complaint. 

It is not difficult to trace the movements of Mr. Bennett's 
mind on the religious systems of the day, however, to a parti- 
cular state into which it had been thrown by learning that his 
brother Cosmo, so highly esteemed and so dearly loved, had 
perished in the very hey-day of promise and of life. By the 
severities of discipline to which Cosmo's delicate constitution 
had been subjected, after being impaired by the excessive 
burning of those intellectual flames, the nature of whose 
seductive and delicious, yet consuming fires, no man knows 
who has not been drawn away by their fervid and dazzling 
beauties from the cold currents of the icy world, till the objects 
of the outer senses have faded, and he is wholly absorbed in 
the realms of his ideal universe, the noble form and the manly 
heart yielded to death's withering whisper. He departed from 
the scenes of life without enriching the world with tho^e grace?/ 
and accomplishments of the intellect, which taste and industry 
had stored, falling a sacrifice to the strange customs invented 
by barbarous men in barbaric ages. That the spirit of a 
reformer should have animated Mr. Bennett's mind, therefore, 
is not singular; and his brother's fate will justify in some 
degree the means taken to save other men from like expe- 
riences, and equally deplorable catastrophes. Mr. Bennett's 
only weapon was his pen — the pen, too, not of a clergyman, or 
of a professed ecclesiastical disputant. It was the pen of a 
satirist, who, if he had poured out his ridicule through measured 
words and flowing metres, would have commanded a very 
different kind of commentary from that which attended his 
prolonged and determined efforts. It may be said his condition 
was a morbid one. It may have been. Such a state some- 
times thunders truths into the world's ear, which it shrinks to 
know, and shudders at, for the old plodder has always been an 
impatient listener, and most impatient when most likely to 
have follies, tricks, or machinery exposed. Society, perhaps, 



270 BIRTH OF REVENGE. 

was morbid, too — and needed a little medicine to change 
that hectic upon its cheek, which careless eyes may have mis- 
taken for the lovely hue of health, while the more studious 
observer, or one made clear-sighted through sensitiveness, 
could perceive that it was but the evidence of the most loath- 
some inner corruption and decay. 

The reader may judge of all this as he pleases. He has the 
chief facts in the history of years upon which to make his 
estimate regarding the especial needs of society ; and, while 
he may decide upon what favorite panacea he would have 
relied for improving the condition of things, it will be the 
province of these pages, while they condemn the precise drugs 
which were administered, to express no regret that they were 
effectual in promoting a better and more healthful vitality of 
the body politic and ecclesiastic. Mr. Bennett's sarcasms and 
witticisms had a deep meaning, and there were those who 
winced under it. There were those who felt it, and who were 
determined to have their revenge upon the satirist at some 
future day, and at a moment when he would not have his 
powerful engine at his side to defend himself from their attacks. 
The reader will watch the course of events when Mr. Bennett 
is found in Dublin, on his second visit to Europe, after he had 
neglected to avail himself of an invitation to visit Ireland, 
during the year 1838. 

The mode in which Mr. Bennett chose to deal with politics 
— jy-as justified by the necessity existing to show the people the 
means by which they were made tools to place designing and 
scheming men in office. No man knew better than the Editor, 
the method of getting up machinery for public political agita- 
tion. He was reared in a school where he had learned all the 
lessons in political tacties, which either disgust a man with 
their frauds and tricks, or corrupt his nature and honor for 
life. " All is fair in politics," is a convenient proverb, and it 
is the only plaster that professed politicians possess, to heal 
the stings of conscience. Patriotism, love of country, the wel- 
fare of the people are the last considerations. They are texts 
to preach upon, but are seldom used to guide the people to 



IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. 271 

" good works." A truly noble mind can never live long liem- 
nied in by a party ; and happy would it be if an agitation 
could be kept up continually, to break the barriers and plat- 
forms upon which cunning men climb to power. Legislators 
should be selected for their private worth, so that the State 
always may have the benefit of the greatest wisdom, suited to 
the action demanded by the times. That the Herald has 
turned the mass of the people towards this desirable position 
in politics is one reason why good citizens should rejoice at its 
existence, even while they may question its judgment in not 
venturing a step or two in advance of the manifest position of 
a slumbering public opinion. This, however, should be 
remembered, that what ought to be and might be, is quite a 
different thing from what, under all circumstances, it is possible 
should be. If the large experience of Mr. Bennett had taught 
him that the only way to effect a reform in society is to stand 
as " the chief of sinners" in it and gradually to improve opinion 
by the slow growth of principles, rather than by a reckless 
assault upon ancient prejudices, then there is a justification of/' 
the course which he adopted. 

Philosophy, history, the wise instruction of ages have shown 
that this is the surest and safest method for the production of 
favorable results ; and even opposition to the abstract right of 
things, on the whole is beneficial, since it enables society to 
have the advantage, ultimately, of the best practical wisdom 
of men's hearts and intellects. In a world where money and 
the acquisition of it are superior in power to all principles, it is 
essential to the melioration of society to show not so much 
that it is just, or benevolent, or right, to effect changes in cus- 
toms and laws, as to assure the community of some positive 
pecuniary gain by submitting to innovations. Man may weep 
that thus it is — but he must correct first the primal evil. 
Gradually, the laws demanding imprisonment for debt have 
been abolished. It has not been done because men are 
much more kind and benevolent than they were a century 
ago, but because States could see a mode of enriching them- 
selves and increasing trade by consenting to the change. . In 



272 PHILANTHROPY. 

the same way, almost every law that has been modified owes 
its more favorable operation upon man to some similar con- 
sraeration of profit. Individual active benevolence agitates— 
it is individual interest that yields to the cry of the human 
heart. Thus will it be with the question of slavery, with the 
abolition of capital punishment, with the abolition of the sale 
of intoxicating liquors, with the proposition for an adequate 
tariff for the protection of the labor of mechanics and farmers, 
with the question of constructing a great government road to 
the Pacific shore, and with every other subject that is present- 
ed for the opinion and action of a free people. 

If this be true, then the course of Mr. Bennett, however 
unsatisfactory it may have been to the busy reformers of the 
age, who frequently use harsh terms to express their detestation 
of what they call " want of principle," may not be so worthy of 
condemnation as, upon a superficial inspection of his motives, 
it would appear to be. They may have their mode of bring- 
ing about results. He equally is entitled to indulge in his. 
7t is a question of wisdom between the two parties. One thing 
is certain, that while others have perished by the way, or have 
failed to produce any immediate practical results by their very 
valuable and generous labors, he has sustained the influence 
of his Press, and is ready to. participate in the advocacy of 
any reform that is not purely ideal. That Mr. Bennett is any 
less philanthropic at heart than those who have more credit 
with the world for that quality is proved not, by the mode in 
which he ha» been in the habit of treating the disputed themes 
of modern reformers. His motives may be as pure as those 
who make larger professions. 

The avowal of a deep solicitude in human welfare, or even 
the consecration of a life-time as a sacrifice in behalf of man, 
only theoretically or abstractly considered, is but the obsession 
of the mind by a mere idea, if the philanthropist ruthlessly and 
habitually revile any human being, or wantonly misrepresent 
the heart or mind — the motives or acts of a fellow wrestler in 
the arena of life. Of such a person, who is maddened so far 
by the fact that an opponent has differed from him in opinions, 



CRIMINATION AND RECRIMINATION. 273 

or lias prospered in his own peculiar labors, as to brand an 
humble or renowned name with dishonor, either by question? 
ing the sincerity of motives, or by placing misconstructions 
upon actions, it never can be said with justice that such a man 
— one so inconsistent with his own professions, is inspired by 
a generous and active philanthropy, is less than ignobly 
ambitious, or that he is a model for virtuous imitation. The 
world, alas ! is denied the benefits which would flow from the 
promulgation of truth, not so much from the impotency of 
virtue over the mind, as from the painful fact that the issues 
flowing from Right and Wrong are overlooked in the multitude 
of personal combats which attend and disgrace every discus- 
sion. Measures for the benefit of the Race are eclipsed almost 
entirely by the clouds of dust raised by the combatants in the 
strife, which, howsoever honorably commenced, usually termi- 
nates in nothing better than a strange turmoil of ill-nature and 
selfishness. When the principles and facts which underlie 
any subject of popular importance are kept free from all per- 
sonal controversies and criminations, the public mind can sur- 
vey them with clearness and satisfaction, and the journalist in 
the future will be truest to his mission and his class, when he 
acts upon this palpable dictate of prudence and common 
sense. 

While censuring the indiscriminate attacks made upon Mr. 1 
Bennett, not only at the time of " the Moral War," but subse- \ 
quently, in 1845, and in other years, when the most indecorous , 
treatment was used towards those connected with him, without { 
regard to sex, or to those chivalrous restraints which subdue / 
passion and malignity in their most fiery moods — be it not 
understood that any recriminations by the Herald are justified, 
They were just as censurable as the assaults of which complaint 
is made. Even the truth sometimes employed to make them 
powerful added not to their character. All such personalities / 
are disgraceful, spring where they may, or provoked by what- / 
ever injustice and wrong. ~No mind cultivated by taste and 
education can review them with anything less than loathing 
and contempt. It is, however, pleasant to record that the 

12* 



274 ASTOR HOUSE — -CHARLES STETSON. 

Herald, after 1840, seldom erred very gravely — the Editor 
being contented to reply that the assaults of his neighbours 
were the offspring of habitual envy at the success of an esta- 
blishment which had arisen, not from capital, but from inherent 
energy and persistent labor. 

Censure should fall heavily on the course of Mr. Bennett's 
assailants, on his return from his wedding tour to Niagara 
Falls, at the close of August, 1840. He went with his lady to 
the Astor House. No sooner was this known than his political 
and literary enemies sounded an alarm, and foolishly endeavor- 
ed by the coercion of newspaper outcry and assumed morality, 
as well as by a false assertion, to urge the proprietor of the 
Astor House — Charles Stetson, to insult Mr. Bennett and his 
lady, by refusing to them the hospitalities of the establishment. 
That noble and chivalric gentleman, who has distinguished 
himself not only by his graceful urbanity and intercourse with 
many of the most eminent personages of the age, but who has 
also made the most able ex-tempore oratorical eulogy on the 
private character of Daniel Webster known to American litera- 
ture, neither was confused by the passions of the hour, nor 
hurried into indecorum' by the fear of using his own good 
sense. He assured Mr. Bennett of his regret that the public 
newspapers should outrage truth, and immediately humbled 
the detractors by causing them to contradict the calumny to 
which they had given currency, namely, that Mr. Stetson had 
-desired Mr. Bennett to find another residence. Contrary to 
this, Mr. Stetson had desired Mr. Bennett to use the house 
agreeably to his own will and pleasure, for he well knew that 
there was not a word to be said against Mr. Bennett's private 
character. No man of probity could avow anything to his 
discredit as an upright and honest gentleman, whatever view 
he might entertain of the curious taste displayed frequently in 
the columns of the Herald. 

The Editor of the Brooklyn News, who watched the course 
of Journalism with a dignified impartiality, expressed his " un- 
qualified disapprobation of the matter and spirit of this attack " 
made to destroy the happiness of Mr. Bennett's home. He said : 



NEWSPAPER ABUSE. 275 

"When public attention was first called to the dangerous 
character of the Herald, we, in common with others, honestly 
and fearlessly expressed our views upon the subject. We 
were anxious only to see a reform in the character and conduct 
of the Herald. It never entered into our thoughts or wishes 
to have public opinion operate further than was necessary to 
produce this reform. So soon as we perceived that the leaders 
of the Herald War, as it has been termed, were guided in their 
attacks by a spirit of persecution, aiming rather at destruction 
than reform, we at once withdrew our co-operation, sincerely 
believing that sustaining such a spirit would prove as dangerous 
to society as the Herald, ever was, in its worst days. Mr. 
Bennett, in an article that appeared some weeks ago, stated that 
articles of a slimy character might have crept into the Herald, 
but for the future more care should be taken to admit nothing 
of an offensive character. This acknowledgement, and this 
promise, from a man goaded on all sides, was surely sufficient 
to obtain a truce from a generous foe. Some personal hostility 
has had more to do with the contest, than any very special 
regard for the public morals. — Mrs. Bennett is, we are inform- 
ed, a lady of high respectability and talents, and she, at least, 
might have been spared this infliction of a newspaper attack, 
for she will, perhaps, most keenly feel this uncalled for and 
ungracious insult. The attack is unmanly, and shows the 
perpetrator to be wanting in that magnanimity of character 
which always marks the gentleman." 

Mr. Bennett immediately visited Boston, when he noticed the 
calumnies and quarrels of his antagonists in this laconic and 
philosophical style. 

" These blockheads are determined to make me the greatest 
man of the age. Newspaper abuse made Mr. Van Buren chief 
magistrate of this republic — and newspaper abuse will make 
me the chief editor of this country. Well — be it so, I can't 
help it." 

With regard to the tone of the Herald upon* some of the 
topics above named, citations to fill volumes might be made. 
A few specimens from Mr. Bennett's own pen will give an 



276 ATHEISM AND RELIGION. 

insight into his real opinions. In speaking of Atheism, Mr. 
Bennett has said — 

"Atheism is an absurdity. An atheist never existed. 
Materialism is an equal absurdity as contradistinguished from 
mentalism. Really and truly we know nothing of mind or 
matter. We only know our sensations, our thoughts, our feel- 
ings, our ideas, which are all, more or less, synonymous words. 
From these beautiful raw materials of our existence we infer — 
mind, matter, God, heaven, and eternity. The whole circle of 
human knowledge and happiness is merely inference from 
these mysterious sensations, which, — like an invisible but 
incomprehensible frame-work, spread over man a web of 
intelligence. Common sense — the constant series of our 
mysterious sensations, is the foundation of all philosophy, all 
religion, all literature, all poetry, all human happiness." 

Upon Religion, when charged with being insensible to every 
moral and pious sentiment, his readers were invited to discern 
his heart in such passages as are here appended. 
\ " When I was quite a youth, perplexed with the violent 
controversies between the Catholics and Protestants, I used to 
go to the banks of a stream, and pour my regrets into its 
gentle ripples, that I had not lived in the dark ages, when 
there was only one opinion and one religion to believe. 

" Religion — true religion — consists not in eating and drinking 
— -not in high salaries — not in hanging around the apron 
strings of rich old women — not in presuming to judge the 
opinions of others beyond what their acts will justify. Neither 
does true religion — nor real Christianity consist in believing 
the dogmas of any church — or the ipse dixit of any man. The 
Bible is before me. Have I not a right to read that book — to 
draw out from it religious opinions — and to create a belief 
and a church of my own? 

" I had not reached the age of eighteen, before the light of 
nature — the intelligence of the age — the progress of truth and 
knowledge had broken to pieces all the ridiculous superstitions 
of the church of Rome, without affecting a single moral prin- 
ciple which I had received in the course of my early instruc- 



THE SACRED SCRIPTURES. 277 

tion. With the sacred document in my hand, and all history 
spread out before me, I would not submit to bigotry, either 
Catholic or Protestant, even at that early age. I went to the 
sources of true religion, and drank of the pure stream, 
uncontaminated by priest or prelate, parson or minister ; and 
as long as we have these sacred volumes in full circulation here 
below, defiance may alike be set to the bigots of Catholicity 
or of Protestantism. We care for neither. We are indepen- 
dent of all. Like Luther — like Paul, we go on our own 
hook." 

The annexed paragraph from a long article upon the value 
of the Bible in the education of the people, will be read with 
satisfaction. 

" The first book I recollect anything of was the Scriptures. 
In the school in which I was taught to read, the Scriptures 
were the principal book. The history of the patriarchs, of the 
prophets, of the apostles, of the martyrs, of the Son of Man 
himself — is as familiar to me as the expression of my mother's 
face, and the light of my mother's eye. My imagination, my 
fancy, my taste, my morals were formed on the perusal of the 
Scriptures. The literature of the Greek and Roman classics 
— that even of England and of Scotland, was a study 
subsequent to that of the Scriptures. In the day, and in the 
country in which I was a boy, the Scriptures were the text 
book — the reading book — the Vade Mecum — the companion of 
Saturday night and of Sunday all day. I was educated a 
Catholic, in the midst of a Protestant community — yet both 
Catholic and Protestant breathed the moral atmosphere of the 
Scriptures. My parents, my schoolmaster, my associates — all 
venerated the book of heaven alike. My literary and moral 
tastes are all founded on the striking passages in the Scriptures ; 
and I do verily believe, that to this early habit of reading the 
Bible at school, am I indebted for that force, brevity, spirit, 
and peculiarity which makes the style of the Herald as popular 
with the uncontaminated masses of a community who are yet 
imbued with the spirit and literature of the Bible " 

In speaking upon the effect of the Press upon society, he 



278 THE VIRGIN MARY. 

breaks forth, in the annexed animated passage, into one of 
those energetic declarations which frequently characterize 
his pen. 

" It has torn the mask from the hypocrite — it has exposed 
the canting Pharisee — it has rebuked the snarling bigot — it has 
laid bare wickedness in the sanctuary — it has defended pure 
religion from the insults and attacks of its professed friends — 
it has inculcated the philanthropic and refining and harmoniz- 
ing principles of Christianity — it has, in fact, labored to com- 
mend to all men a strict observance of the simple precepts 
which Jesus enforced upon his disciples in Judea, as the only 
sure means of happiness. We can at least declare, that the 
aim of this journal has ever been to show that religion stripped 
of cant, hypocrisy, and sectarianism, is the only foundation on 
which the prosperity and happiness of nations or individuals 
can repose." 

After an attempt had been made to show that Mr. Bennett 
had spoken of the Virgin Mary as an old acquaintance, he 
replied to the charge in a mixed style of sarcasm and truth — 
the particular aim of which appears to have been to declare 
that while he acknowledged his indebtedness to his early 
religious culture, he did not feel bound to pay homage to the 
devices of man, or to superstitious idolatries of any kind. 

" She is an old acquaintance. I have been familiar with her 
beautiful history from my earliest infancy. She was the first 
bright inhabitant of heaven whose character I comprehended, 
and whose life inspired me with love and devotion. 

" The Virgin was a poor and beauteous maiden of ancient 
Judah, before people were dispersed and became pawnbrokers. 
Her face had been fanned with the soft breezes of Bethlehem ; 
her raven tresses had waved in the breath of the spicy moun- 
tains of Israel. She was the model — the cynosure of her mys- 
terious race. These ideas I imbibed with the milk of maternal 
love. The Virgin therefore is an old acquaintance, and it is 
to this old acquaintance — to these early impressions of her 
exquisite purity of character — that I am indebted for the 
religion, the poetry, and the enthusiasm with which 1 regard 



CHARITABLE DONATIONS. 279 

the sex, and my preservation from that licentiousness which 
characterizes the ' highly respectable people and finished gen- 
tlemen ' of the present age." 

After he had edited the Herald only three years, in referring 
to the slanders of the press, and doubtless placing the amount 
of his charities far below the truth, he said — 

" In two years I have probably given away in generous 
and charitable acts $2,500 of well earned, hard earned cur- 
rent money. # * I have paid the highest wages, been liberal 
to the poor, and poured out my money like water to relieve 
the wants of either sex. This course of conduct I find has 
raised a host of bitter and malignant enemies, who consider my 
conduct a libel on them, and who, in consequence, take pains 
night and clay, to deny the truth of history, and to strip me of 
every attribute of humanity. When I gave money to the 
seamstresses, and also to females for the benefit of charitable 
societies, I have known many go about saying, ' I never ex- 
pected such a thing,' — ' it is done for vanity,' — ' so much saved 
from the devil's own !' When I presented a hundred dollars 
to the suffering poor, through the hands of his Honor the 
Mayor, I was assailed in a public meeting in Broadway House, 
by Redfield Fisher and other good and honest men, and 
accused, for that piece of insolence, of one half the crimes 
forbidden by the decalogue. Every generous and liberal act 
of my life has been tortured into vice, villainy, and horrible 
atrocity." 

Notwithstanding the severity of the attacks made upon Mr. 
Bennett in the course of his career and in the early part of 
1840, he was fortunate enough to retain the sympathies and 
x'egard of many acquaintances who, penetrating his motives, 
could not swerve from their respect for his character at the 
instigation of a hostile Press. Indeed he made many valuable 
friends — and, finally, his long life as a bachelor, of which he 
often complained in a humorous manner, was threatened. 

He had been invited to an evening party where he saw a 
lady whose engaging manners, education, taste, love and know- 
ledge of music, personal beauty, and private worth, made a 



280 MRS. BENNETT. 

deep impression upon his heart. He betrayed no emotions 
indicating a change in his feelings, till the ensuing day, when 
he proposed to some friends a ride into the country, desiring 
this lady to be one of the party. His proposal was accepted. 
The acquaintance thus formed ripened into a mutual regard ; 
and on Saturday, June 6th, at St. Peter's Church, Barclay 
Street, by the Kev. Dr. Power, James Gordon Bennett was 
united in the bonds of wedlock to Miss Henrietta Agnes Crean. 

This lady is the daughter of highly respectable parents 
formerly of the West of Ireland, descending from the Warrens 
of Dublin on the one side, and from the Crean Lynch family 
on the other. She had come to the United States in the year 
1838 with her mother, sister, and brother, and soon distinguish- 
ed herself by her accomplishments, particularly as a composer 
of music. Her mother, Mrs. Crean, still resides in New York 
with other children, and is much respected by a large circle of 
acquaintances. 

Mrs. Bennett's qualities of mind and heart are of no ordinary 
character. As a writer she has displayed perceptive powers 
worthy of admiration, while her original taste in art and litera- 
ture is highly creditable. Making no pretensions as an author- 
ess, she communicates her views with a graceful and forcible 
pen. As a linguist she excels — being acquainted with several 
modern languages which she speaks with fluency. 

The chief charm of Mrs. Bennett's character rests not so 
much, however, in these graces as in that impulsive generosity 
of heart, ever ready to assist the needy in their appeals for 
charity, or to aid the struggling student in literature, art, or 
science, to advance on his treacherous, uncertain, and thorny 
way. Mrs. Bennett's kindness ought long to be remembered 
by hundreds who have been profited by its exercise, not only 
when it has been solicited, but when it has been excited spon- 
taneously by merit or worth. It is to be regretted that she 
has determined to reside chiefly in Europe, although the motive 
of this decision rests upon a very commendable basis. She 
there superintends the education of her son — a youth of fine 
promise, about fourteen years of age, named after his father, 



mr. Bennett's family. 281 

and destined hereafter to take an active part in ike Herald 
establishment. The two remaining children, it is designed to 
educate, also, out of the sphere of misrepresentation, calumny, 
and reckless wit, to whose insulting frequency her own name 
has been subjected, for no other cause than to gratify the 
spleen of assailants, alike destitute of magnanimity of disposi- 
tion and good taste in literature, when they have despaired of 
mounding Mr. Bennett in any other way. 

It is to a generous mind a sad reflection, to contemplate a 
family thus prudentially guarded from the poisoning influence 
which reckless members of society would exert on youthful 
and ductile minds. It is lamentable that the freedom of the 
Press should be so abused anywhere, as to operate on the 
sensitive nature of a woman's heart, and prevent her from 
rearing the objects of her hope and affection in their own 
home, without the probability of their being tainted with the 
influences arising from the lowest malevolence, and the most 
degrading animosity. The history of the trials to which the 
patience of the ladies in Mr. Bennett's family has been exposed, 
by the cruel conduct of persons who have not hesitated to 
pollute the Press with their infamous calumnies, is a sufficient 
evidence of the propriety of Mrs. Bennett's course in educating 
her children in a foreign land. Surely the Press needs a 
reform even in its present improved state. 

The Herald in 1840 was placed upon a basis which time 
alone will shake. Its remarkable and characteristic energy 
was strained to the- uttermost to give it an interest in the 
public mind on almost every topic of public importance ; and 
though in dignity of position it was comparatively nothing to 
that it now holds, yet the public were rapidly becoming 
satisfied that for news, and reliable news, it was without a 
rival. It was conducted with more tact than had been dis- 
played by any other journal. It had a word to say on almost 
every event, and permitted little more to escape its attention 
than it does to-day. Had it interested the farming people 
by an agricultural department, its value would have been 
much enhanced in the estimation of the country. By a con- 



282 SUBJECTS AND LABORS. 

densation of some of its less important matter this might have 
been effected with ease. 

Its reports of trials and public meetings were admirable, and 
its earnest action on commercial and financial subjects made it 
valuable everywhere. "Whether it discoursed on banks and 
banking, or the arrival in May of the first Cunard steamer, or 
of the probable result of the election for President, or amused 
the people with accounts of Fanny Elssler's reception here and 
there, or presented the testimony in the Glentworth Election 
Frauds, or watched the friends of " Tippecanoe and Tyler 
too," or laughed at the Evangelical Alliance and their strange 
doings in London, or commented upon some of the terrible 
tragedies in New York life, or upon any other topics already 
noticed in this chapter, it showed always that it was alive to 
everything which concerned public good or public curiosity. 

Besides this, Mr. Bennett did not rest during his tour of 
pleasure to Niagara Falls. He wrote letters almost every day 
from the middle of July till the end of August, descriptive of 
his travels and of all that he saw, and while in Boston, at the 
time when the excitement was created to complete Bunker 
Hill Monument, pictured for his readers in strong colors every 
incident that could interest the public. As ever, he was 
industrious, indefatigable, having no duties which could divide 
him from the journal which he had determined should be with- 
out a rival in circulation or in influence. 



REPUDIATION FORESHADOWED. 283 



CHAPTER XXI 



The year 1841 exhibited the energy of Mr. Bennett's 
character more strongly than ever before. The portion of the 
Press in opposition to him now ceased to attack the Herald 
except upon the ground of falsifying facts and public opinion. 
Bold assertions were made, but no proofs to substantiate them 
were offered. The most violent attack appeared on the 25th 
of November. The cause of it was the statement which had 
been made in the Herald with respect to the probability that 
certain states in the Union, particularly Michigan and Missis- 
sippi, would repudiate their State debts. A torrent of virtu- 
ous Wall street indignation was poured out because already 
the Herald had published so much truth that had gone abroad 
to startle the London Exchange and the Paris Bourse. Mr. 
Bennett was called a foreigner, declared to be an unnaturalized 
citizen, charged with having been bribed in 1838, while on his 
visit in London, to cripple American credit in order to gratify 
the gentlemen in the Bank parlor in Threadneedle street, and 
every term of opprobrium was heaped upon his devoted head 
that enmity could suggest or malice could forge. 

The article containing this abuse was inserted in the Herald 
on the 26th of November, and the reply was sarcastic and 
pointed. It did not need the Editor's pen, however, to inti- 
mate the absurdity of the charges, for no reader of the Herald 
could do less than acknowledge that the general statements 
of the paper were quite correct, and that the views upon them 
were eminently useful to the people of the old and new worlds. 
The subsequent history of the States justified the anticipations 
and surmises of the Editor, and the proud national stand 



284 WHIGS NATIONAL BANK. 

occupied by Mm, deservedly elevated him as a faithful and 
important journalist. 

At the commencement of the year, the condition of the 
country was such as to excite a contrariety of opinions. Wil- 
liam H. Harrison was about to be inaugurated as President, 
and it was thought by the Whigs that a new National Bank 
would be chartered, as their party were now in power. There 
was an omen of a dissolution, however, on the broad ocean of 
circumstances. On the 11th of March the " President" 
steamer went to sea, and was lost — not a fragment of her ever 
having been identified with certainty — and, in a short time, 
precisely thiity days after taking the oaths of office, President 
Harrison was removed by death from the stormy contentions 
of the republic. 

This, the first demise of a President while in office, was an 
important as well as lamentable event. The Vice-President, by 
the constitution, now became the Chief Magistrate, and John 
Tyler was elevated to that distinction. Mr. Bennett immedi- 
ately declared that this would " be productive of fatal conse- 
quences to the Whig party." Has his prediction been verified ? 

In the course of political agitation and devices, the National 
Bank question came forward. Finally, it appeared settled — 
but the whole project was overthrown by the vetoes of the 
President ! This was the end of the matter, financiers gradu- 
ally retreating from their ground, and Nicholas Biddle himself 
closing his long public career as a financier by writing a series 
of letters, which fell upon the ears of the people like minute 
guns for the burial of the dead. 

Never had a journalist a severer trial of his patience and his 
skill, of his independence and his patriotism, than at this 
remarkable period. Mr. Bennett breasted the difficulties with 
manly energy and industry. He renewed his efforts to search 
into the secrets of every scheme of finance, and his unflinching 
zeal and boldness^n the cause of the people proved of incal- 
culable service to the commercial world. This fact will not 
now be denied even by his political opponents, for the files of 
his journal powerfully attest to his usefulness in the dangerous 



VARIETY OF THE REPORTS. 285 

and singular times when public and private credit wert. 
threatened with prostration. He never allowed his personal 
friendship for Mr. Biddle to interfere with his duties as an editor. 

Mr. Bennett was active, also, in the examination of all sub- 
jects of popular interest. The great forgeries of Monroe 
Edwards — the murder of Mary C. Rogers, and the subsequent 
suicide of her lover, Daniel Payne — the trial of Peter Robin- 
son for the murder of Mr. Suydam, the President of the Far- 
mers' and Mechanics' Bank of New Brunswick — the examina- 
tion of the Religious Anniversaries of May — the murder of 
Mr. Adams by Colt — the trial of Macleod concerned with the 
burning of the " Caroline" — the fanaticism of the disciples of 
William Miller — the vocalization of the elder Braham, and the 
dramatic or lyric powers of Forrest or of Madam Sutton, of 
the elder Vandenhoff, or Dempster, and of other public per- 
formers — were some of the lesser themes of the time, each 
receiving its due share of attention. The reports, where pub- 
lic curiosity demanded it, were full and complete ; and those 
on the May anniversaries were of ample dimensions. These 
latter reports originated with the Herald, and have been con- 
tinued to the present time, while other journals have adopted 
a similar plan, by which the public have gained largely. But 
for the enterprise of the Herald these important meetings 
might be neglected even in the present condition of the public 
Press. 

Other and graver topics engaged Mr. Bennett's mind accord- 
ing to their importance respectively. He is found at war with 
William H. Seward, then Governor of New York, on his poli- 
tical acts, and with John Hughes, the Catholic Bishop, for 
interfering with politics, and exciting the people to maintain 
distinctions in birth and in religious faith. The words of the 
Editor, Catholic as he is, are used in a lofty republican spirit. 
The eminent head of the Catholic church in New York, had 
made a speech and favored the formation of a political ticket 
to affect the November elections, which resulted in Governor 
Seward's election for the fourth time. Mr. Bennett said : 

" The whole thing, from beginning to end, is only a pre- 



286 SCHOOL FUND — BISHOP HUGHES. 

posterous insult to the common sense of an intelligent commu- 
nity. To all minds of intelligence it will, after the election is 
oyer, reduce Bishop Hughes to the lowest state of degradation 
and contempt. He has shown himself to be utterly deficient 
in honesty, or in common sense. There is no alternative on 
which to hang his crosier. If he meant seriously, in a Pro- 
testant country, to succeed in his project, he took the very 
method that would for ever put a barrier between his church 
and the claim on the School Fund. One of the first principles 
of American freedom is to keep separate and distinct the insti- 
tutions of Church and State. No element of liberty is more 
deeply imbued in the American mind than this is. How, then, 
in such a happy, and free, and positive condition of public 
opinion, could Bishop Hughes expect ttfat if- the Church of 
Eome had a favor to ask of a Protestant country, the best 
method to acquire it was to trample this holy principle under 
foot, and organize his church into a political club. If Bishop 
Hughes did not see this view, his mind must be blinded to all 
facts — to all truths — save the dogmas and drivellings of the 
Catholic church in the last stage of decrepitude. But Bishop 
1 Hughes did see this, and therefore he becomes liable to the 
charge of dishonesty in his conduct and opinions — of a ridicu- 
lous attempt to commit a detestable fraud upon the under- 
standing of the intelligent Catholics of this country." 

Mr. Bennett designed to be true to American interests, 
which are the inteiests of the oppressed souls of every land, 
on the system of blending religious faith, or separate national- 
ities, with political action. He has thrown his influence always 
against those politicians whose conduct has tended towards the 
increase and perpetuation of a system so dangerous to the 
peace of society and the welfare of those who are natives of 
other lands. It is contrary to the spirit of republican institu- 
tions for any man who has the privilege of the elective fran- 
chise to consider himself anything less than an honest Ameri- 
can citizen, by surrendering his " second birthright" to the 
genius of the old country from whose shores he has hastened 
to reach the political Mecca. 



REPUBLIC OF TEXAS. 287 

The election of Sam Houston to the Presidency of the 
Republic of Texas, and his known sympathies with whatever 
would lead to an honorable annexation of that country to the 
United States, was a prominent political topic of the year 1841. 
Mr. Bennett, in view of the interest taken in the subject by 
Holland, France, and Great Britain — powers which had recog- 
nised the independent sovereignty of that republic — approach- 
ed its discussion with prudence and discretion, and finally 
maintained the same favorable opinion of its annexation as he 
had entertained when that territory was at war with Mexico. 
Never in the history of the United States has there been a 
question of deeper import to the people, or to that of the future 
of the country, than that relating to Texas — and should she be 
made, in due time, by the construction of a rail-road, the great 
gate-way between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, she will be 
second only to New York in the vastness of her population 
and of her enterprises. It remains to be seen, however, 
whether sectional and political jealousies will interfere with the 
natural destiny of Texas. The very Union depends for its 
further extension on the Pacific coast to the formation of a 
road which by its facilities for the transportation of products, 
freight, and information, Will abridge virtually the distance 
between the extreme East and West of the continent. 

The North-Eastern Boundary Question — the Eight of Search 
Question — and other discussions connected with the treaties 
with Great Britain, were freely agitated and indulged in during 
the year, and for a long time occupied the attention of journal- 
ists on both sides of the Atlantic. There was mnch vigor 
exhibited in the contest, and the Herald took its usual common 
sense view of each topic, dealing always with the main princi- 
ples of the controversies, rather than with the details, which 
are seldom of any importance in the settlement of disputes, 
however useful they may be in prolonging and mystifying 
them. It is to Mr. Bennett's sagacity in seizing upon the real 
issues of a question that he is indebted for his success as a 
political prophet. Seldom looking at any subject through the 
medium of his passions, or through the refractions of self-inte- 



288 CONGRESS IN FORMER DAYS. 

rest, lie discerns with clearness the true state of any conflict, 
after which it is not a difficult task to foreshadow the result. 

In February of this year Mr. Bennett went to Washington. 
He tarried a day or two in Philadelphia, from which city he 
wrote an interesting account of " Norris's Locomotive Factory" 
— some information on the secret financial history of the banks 
there, and other agreeable gossip of a political kind. While at 
Washington he supplied his readers with every prominent item 
of news connected with the retirement of President Van Buren 
and the succession of William H. Harrison — undoubtedly en- 
joying the defeat of the men of that party who had treated him 
so cavalierly, after he had been the first to start many of them 
upon the ground for a successful political race. 

The tables were now turned, and he hoped that the first step 
had been taken towards breaking up entirely both of those 
corrupt political parties which had been so disastrous to the 
interests of millions of honest and industrious men, for a number 
of years — two knots of political pugilists engaged in a warfare 
in which neither talents nor character were safe, and whose 
only patriotism seemed to consist in efforts to obtain the keys 
of the public treasure — the spoils and emoluments of office. 

What a contrast to that enlightened spirit which guided the 
men of an earlier day, when a love of country incited men to 
devote their time, their talents, and their whole hearts to the 
consolidation of political power for the general good of a con- 
fiding, uncorrupted, and industrious people — that period digni- 
fied in the history of nations by the sublime virtues of such 
men as stood forth the embodiments of honor and of liberty in 
the First Congress of the United States ! Alas, how fearfully 
have the admirers of the policy of Washington deteriorated in 
their practices in the political arena — and to what a degraded 
position in national morality have the disciples of Jefferson 
reduced the. generous principles of which he was the founder 
and father ! Patriotism is buried in the ashes of the Past, and 
its descendants, Energy, Talent, and Industry, quarrel over its 
grave, not to possess its virtues but to obtain its perishable 
wealth — its places of emolument, and the revenues accumu- 



REPORTERS IN THE SENATE. 289 

Iated by its wisdom and its self-sacrifices for a corrupt and 
degenerate posterity. 

A proclamation by the President for an Extra Session of 
Congress — received and published by the Herald in advance of 
its contemporaries — created a belief that something important 
would be done during the close of the summer at Washington. 
To meet the public demand, and to awake the Washington 
newspapers from their long lethargy, Mr. Bennett decided to 
establish a corps of reporters in Congress, to supply the Herald 
with the debates in advance of all other papers. As can be 
imagined, this was an awakening movement to the journalists 
in Washington, who leisurely reported the speeches in Con- 
gress, as, they had been accustomed to do for many years. 

Mr. Bennett entrusted this difficult enterprise to the talents 
and skill of Mr. Robert Sutton, whose experience was second 
to that of no reporter, and who in every way was qualified for 
the task. A few days after Mr. Sutton's arrangements were 
completed, and while engaged in his duties, the President of 
the Senate pro tempore, Samuel Southard, informed Mr. Sut- 
ton that the Herald reporters could not be permited to have 
access to the reporting desks of the Senate chamber. The 
rule under which Mr. Southard acted, provided only for 
the admission of two reporters from each daily, and of one 
reporter from each tri-weekly paper, printed and published in 
the city of Washington, to whom special seats were apjffo- 
priated. 

Mr. Southard, doubtless, had had his attention called to the 
old rule by parties interested, and could not well avoid acting 
upon its provisions. Mr. Bennett, however, did not bear the 
exclusion of his reporters tamely. He showed where the 
power that made the rule was couched — in the pecuniary inte- 
rests of the Washington journals — and thus explained the 
" atrocious folly " of Senator Southard : , 

"It is caused by the selfish and malign influence of the 
Washington newspapers, in order to maintain a monopoly of 
Washington news, and to rob the public treasury, under the 
color of public printing, in order to gratify their extravagant 

13 



290 APPEAL TO HENRY CLAY. 

habits of life. According to Mr. Clay's statement, we find that 
during the Congress of 1838, the following amount was paid 
out of the public treasury, for printing, to the three Washing- 
ton prints : — Washington Globe, Blair and Rives, ninety thou- 
sand dollars — National Intelligencer, G-ales and Seaton ; Madi- 
sonian, Thomas Allen, three hundred and thirty thousand 
dollars. 

" There is this enormous amount of the public money thrown 
away upon these prints — and for what 1 It is necessary, as 
they say, in order to remunerate them for reporting the debates 
of Congress. We propose, and will give, a daily report and 
circulation of these debates, better and more comprehensive, 
without asking a cent of the public treasury." 

Mr. Bennett then appealed to the Senate to reform this 
matter, and wrote to Mr. Clay to interfere in the affair, par- 
ticularly, as he alleged, because reporters for Baltimore and 
New York papers were still permitted to take places in the 
reporters' seats. Mr. Bennett's letter to Mr. Clay, with the 
reply of the latter, are subjoined. 

New York, June 5, 1841. 
Hon. Henry Clay, 

Sir : The peculiar circumstances of the case will be my apology for 
troubling you with the present note. 

I have organized, at an expense of nearly two hundred dollars per 
week, a corps of reporters, to give daily reports of the debates in both 
Houses of Congress. In the House there is no difficulty, but in the 
Senate there is a rule, I am told, excluding from the reporters' seats all 
not connected with the Washington press. Now I conceive this exclu- 
sion to be hostile to the public interests. I can and will give daily 
reports of the Senate, without asking any of the printing, or indirect 
remuneration of that body, but I am met with a rule that certainly is 
illiberal and injurious both to private enterprise and public advantage. 

1 address myself to you as one of the most liberal and enlightened 
members of your body, for the purpose of requesting that a motion may 
be made for tne repeal of the rule in question. No individual in this 
laud will sdtoner see the propriety and public advantage of such motion 
than yourself. 

I am, sir, with great respect, 

James Gordon Bennett. 



HENRY CLAY'S LETTER, 29] 

Mr. Clay's amiable and friendly reply was as follows : 

Washington, June 7, 1841. 

Sir : I received your letter upon the subject of the admission of steno- 
graphers in the Senate, and objecting to the restriction by which those 
only are admitted who report for some papers published within the 
District of Columbia. 

Upon enquiry, [ wat informed that the restriction was introduced in 
consequence of the limited accommodations afforded by the Chamber of 
the Senate. 

I should be glad that the reporters of your paper or that of any other 
could be admitted; provided always that whoever is received, in good 
faith, performs the duty of a stenographer. 

I will see if your reporter cannot, by some modification of the rule, be 
admitted, as it would give me pleasure to be instrumental in rendering 
that accommodation to you. I am respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

James Gordon Bennett, Esq. H. Clay. 

Near the close of the session this subject was brought before 
the Senate, and a Committee was empowered to report upon it. 
At some future day it will be a topic for discussion again, in 
connection with the slovenly mode of printing at Washington 
and the interests of the Press in New York. 

Many attempts were made during this year of the Herald 
to injure its reputation. In fact, Mr. Bennett's penetration is 
tried more or less every year, by deceits and forgeries on the 
part of enemies. Falsehoods are invented to entrap him, and 
in some instances the plotters have been successful. In No- 
vember, 1841, he received a letter from Philadelphia announc- 
ing that the Philadelphia Bank had made an assignment. He 
did not publish it. It was the work of some dealer in frauds. 
In noticing; the fact he made remarks which contain historical 
matters connected with the subject. 

" Why should these frauds and forgeries be attempted so 
often upon us 1 The wide circulation of the Herald has been 
acquired by its independence, honesty, and truth. In our 
management of this journal, it is a principle with us to reject 
any advantage that interferes with these purposes. In conse- 



292 FRAUDULENT STATEMENTS. 

quence of this course of conduct the community place more 
confidence in our statements, political, -financial, and general, 
than in those of any other journal in New York. But this 
reputation conflicts very sadly with the great financial and 
political scoundrels of the age. Hence the various attempts 
from many quarters, made to impose fraudulent statements 
upon us, even to the forgery of our name, and reputation as 
was recently done in the shape of a forged letter, attributed to 
us, published in the St. Louis Republican. Hence the attempts 
recently made by some of the political and financial knaves at 
Albany, New Haven, Charleston, and now at Philadelphia, to 
send us fraudulent statements, with forged or fraudulent signa- 
tures, in order to have us publish them, and thus to enable 
these fellows to come out in the National Gazette, Philadelphia 
Ledger, or BicknelVs Reporter, and cry — see what falsehoods 
the Herald publishes — shocking forgeries — awful untruths. 
We have been once or twice caught in these traps, but we will 
take care hereafter that these scoundrels shall not impose 
on us." 

A forgery was circulated generally in the Western States. 
It purported to be a letter from Mr. Bennett to the editor of 
the Vandalia Free Press, respecting Illinois State Bonds. It 
was probably invented by some speculator in Wall Street who 
had been operating for a fall in Illinois State Stocks, and it 
answered his purpose to affix Mr. Bennett's name to the letter. 
Mr. Bennett said of this atrocious forgery that its author was 
probably one of those who, if he talked of the editor of the 
Herald, " would affect to turn up his nose in contempt." 

Every journal is liable to suffer from similar tricks — and the 
uninitiated will understand how very difficult it is for editors 
always to act with such truth and justice on their side, as to 
be free from the censures which are inflicted upon Journalism 
for the wrongs it does to society, through not knowing the facts 
in a case completely, or through putting faith in the inventions 
of men destitute of honor and of honesty, whose arts and 
devices are not -comprehended, or whose characters and motives 
are not clearly understood. 



PSEUDO-DEMOCRACY. 293 

The change in the condition of political parties which Mr, 
Bennett had predicted in 1837 was clearly shown in this year, 
and in the preceding elections which swept away Mr. Van 
Buren's power as a politician. It is well to peruse the article 
in which, briefly surveying the course of parties, Mr. Bennett 
was able to perceive the end of that pseudo-democratic dynasty, 
which held within its embraces more of the private aristo- 
crats of society than were ever combined in aid of any other 
Administration. Memory has only to revert to the names of 
the men who were attached to Mr. Van Buren's policy to 
distinguish an array of wealth and haughty self-consequence 
in social, literary, and scientific life, such as never before 
marked the career of any President. It is a singular fact, too, 
that almost every measure introduced and carried forward 
while Mr. Van Buren was in office, was opposed to the interests 
of the hard democracy which had elevated him into the 
Presidential chair. It will be a lesson to the people hereafter, 
not to mistake the name of a thing for its reality. Here is 
Mr. Bennett's prediction : 

" In the year 1825 such another, but a lesser revolution, took 
place in the same relations of life and society. Who has 
forgotten that day ? Are there any now in the field that can 
remember and profit by the experience of the past ? In 1825 
a revolution took place in commerce which prostrated a hun- 
dred large houses in our principal cities, dashed to atoms 
innumerable small traders, and laid the foundation of that 
political revolution which swept John Quincy Adams and his 
friends from the Presidency in 1828. The legislation of Con- 
gress and the action of the government, from 1818 to 1824, had 
fostered speculation, and given birth to a too great enlargement 
of trade. Paper securities of all kinds had then increased — 
the price of cotton nearly doubled — and mechanics' wages risen 
above previous rates. Originating in England, the revulsion 
in trade and commerce began in 1825, which swept in one year 
from the higher walks of business, one half of the leading 
merchants and capitalists of the land. This singular disruption 
of confidence in commerce ran, like a fire in the mountains, 



294 A PREDICTION VERIFIED. 

into the elevations of political life. In this city we had then 
just commenced our career — we mixed with the scenes — we 
knew the men — and we marked the overpowering effect which 
the commercial crisis of 1825 had in laying the foundation of 
a political revolution, which changed the whole face of the 
government in less than three years. The numerous bankrupt- 
cies — the fall of cotton — the blowing up of banks and the Bond 
companies — the stagnation of trade — the agitation among the 
working classes — the general breach of confidence, com- 
municated itself, with the rapidity of an electric shock, to the 
political parties of those days, and laid the foundation for the 
great change in 1828. Thus was the commercial revulsion of 
1825 the mother of the political revolution of 1828 by which 
General Jackson reached the Presidency, and thus also will the 
commercial trouble of 1S37 be the foundation for a similar, 
revolution in government anal in parties in 1840. There can be 
no mistake in this opinion. We speak from experience — we 
point to undeniable facts — we hear the voice of change, and 
we know that voice as well as we do the accents of a mother's 
lips." 

To those who have imagined that they could fathom Mr. 
Bennett's course in politics, it may be as well to say that he is 
not a partisan politician, and has not been one, since he com- 
menced the Herald. No great journalist can be a partisan — 
and no journal can become generally popular that holds to the 
narrow circumscriptions of party. A journal, to be great as a 
newspaper, must be with the people, and must work in the 
sphere of their instincts. It can gain nothing by advancing 
too rapidly. The moment that it holds its head ab'ove the 
masses, except as the mouth-piece of their best intelligence 
and wisdom — which is no more than what they are willing to 
have exist in society — it will become the organ of a clique of 
very good men — very good reformers — but their sanity will be 
questioned, and their engine will never secure an election, or 
any measure of great popular utility. 

On the 21st of October the Evening Star ceased to exist, 
being merged in the Commercial Advertiser. It had been 



MR. NOAH AS A JOURNALIST. 29^ 

edited by M. M. Noah for several years, and was engaged 
warmly in opposition to Mr. Bennett, who responded to its 
attacks with promptitude, dealing out his satire in no limited 
quantities, whenever provoked to it by the course of his 
neighbor. The example set by the Star in the " moral wars" 
was usually followed by the other papers opposed to Mr. Ben- 
nett; and there can be no doubt that its destruction was 
agreeable to the Herald. 

Mr. Noah was ail editor of the old school, and though a very 
worthy gentleman and a good writer, was imbued with much 
of the spirit of anfagonism that grew up under the influences 
of the political enthusiasm which animated society after the 
war of 1812. His style was characterized by a severity of 
expression, mixed with a kind of good humor, then quite 
palatable to many readers,- but he had not sufficient enthusiasm 
and energy to keep pace with the great changes in Journalism 
which were introduced by the establishment of the Cheap 
Press. He kept upon the old road in which he had travelled 
for many years, seemingly unconscious that there was a great 
revolution going on in newspaper literature. In this, however, 
he was not singular, as there still exist editors and journals 
not much in advance of the old school. Mr. Noah afterwards 
became for a time one of the editors of the Sun, and finally 
one of the proprietors of the Sunday Times, which he edited 
till his decease. 

The attacks on Mr. Bennett during this year were not so 
frequent or so fierce as they had been at former periods. He 
seemed to have one unrelenting enemy, however, in a New 
York correspondent of the Washington Madisonian, for in the 
files of that paper may be found a series of letters containing 
a catalogue of falsehoods and errors which could have originated 
only in a foul and unmanly imagination, or in the credulous 
spirit of an enemy willing to learn anything that malice could 
design, or envy would perpetuate. Mr. Bennett, however, 
could afford to smile at all such attempts to injure the progress 
of the Herald, for its receipts during the year were not less 
than one hundred thousand dollars. 



296 THE KILLING OF SAMUEL ADAMS. 



CHAPTER XXII 



The year 1842 tried severely the temper and character of 
the Press, which was called upon to comment on many 
remarkable cases of human slaughter. The killing of Mr. 
Adams by John 0. Colt in New York — the death of Mr. 
Lougee, by the hands of Alexander, in Philadelphia, and the 
summary execution of Midshipman Philip Spencer and others, 
on board of the United States brig Somers at sea by the order 
of Commander A. S. McKenzie, were the prominent tragic 
episodes of the tangled story of life. There were many others 
sufficiently startling, but they were little heeded, in conse- 
quence of the absorption of the public mind by the singular 
histories connected with these terrible dramas of actual exist- 
ence. 

The time had come when the power of money and the 
power of the majesty of law were to be tried, as well as the 
accused. The belief that the six or seven thousand dollars 
loaned by Joseph Hoxie to Robinson, to defend the latter, on 
indictment for Helen Jewett's murder, had been instrumental 
in gaining an acquittal for the prisoner, stimulated the friends 
of Colt to spare neither money nor exertion to clear him. 
The Press, Avith one or two exceptions, were true to the 
demands of justice and to the sublime principles of law. The 
Herald took noble ground and held it — sympathizing with the 
accused and his friends, but inflexible for the administration of 
justice. Mr. Bennett had been excited by the prejudgment of 
the Press against Robinson to aid his cause ; but, in the case 
of Colt, he kept pace only with the facts as disclosed on the 
trial. The killing of Samuel Adams was effected in September 



THE CONFESSION OF COLT. 297 

1841, but the entire history of the affair was not completed till 
the end of November, 1842, when its place in the public mind 
was supplanted by the " Somers Mutiny," and the consequent 
Court Martial held at Brooklyn Navy Yard. 

The whole history of Colt's tragedy would fill a volume. 
Adams was killed by Colt on the corner of Broadway and 
Chambers Street, now the Irving House, in a room then occu- 
pied by the latter, who declared that the deed was committed 
in self-defence. The body was secreted in a box, and was sent 
on board a vessel bound to "New Orleans. Adams was missed, 
and his body was discovered. Colt confessed through his 
counsel, the chief particulars of the transaction, but the jury 
had no right to take his statement with respect to his alleged 
quarrel with his victim as testimony. His conviction — the 
scenes in court and in and near the Park — the strenuous efforts 
made by his counsel to procure a new trial — the refusal of the 
three judges of the Supreme Court and of the Chancellor to 
grant a writ of error — the strife between the friends of the 
accused and the supremacy of the law, were the opening scenes 
of the drama. A new trial was anticipated almost up to the 
moment when Judge Kent announced his determination to pass 
the sentence. Then Colt, in person, first abused and then 
defied the laws, and maintained that he was right and every 
one else was wrong. He went back to his cell, and u^A<*- 
letters to the journals. In these he strove to show that he was 
an injured man. He yet lived in hope. There was the appeal 
to the Chancellor for a writ of error, the thought of which 
buoyed him. It failed. Then came the meeting in the Park, 
and the appeal to the Governor — and countless efforts to 
influence the Executive. All these failed. Even the people 
were against him — for they suspected that Ezra White, at one 
time, and Robinson, at another, had escaped the demands of 
the law, and they were anxious that the* measure of justice 
should be full. 

Bribery was Colt's next resource. Hopes rested on this. 
The first attempt of any magnitude was on the Deputy-keepers 
of the prison. One thousand dollars to each, and the promise 

13* 



298 THE DEATH OF COLT. 

of more money, failed to have the desired effect. The prin- 
cipal keeper, Col. Jones, put the condemned man into irons ! 
Only a week was to pass over, and the prisoner would either 
he free or executed. Still he sent for no clergyman. The 
Sheriff then assumed the custody of him — knocked off his irons, 
and gave him in charge to two of his deputies, Vultee and 
Green. In ninety-six hours the tragedy must end ! The 
clergyman was permitted to enter. Colt did not seem to realize 
that there was no hope for him. What caused this 1 Did he 
believe in the corruptibility of the press, of courts, of the 
officers of the law, or in the infallible power of gold to change 
public opinion ? 

He was penitent and obdurate — haughty and subdued by 
turns. He avowed he would not commit suicide, and deceived 
his spiritual adviser. Perhaps he did not contemplate self-de- 
struction — he had not given up all hope of escape ! With five 
hundred dollars he battered at the integrity of Vultee. He 
only wanted to be put into another cell, where a master key 
could make the lock useless. That failed — all failed ! 

An escape in female apparel was proposed, but refused. By 
intercessions the Sheriff revoked his former strict rules, and 
permitted friends, unattended, to see the condemned. They 
could give him weapons, if they thought it wise to do so. 
H^jjes yet cheered his spirit — yes, till within two hours of the 
catastrophe. A letter, with one thousand dollars enclosed, and 
a promise for an additional like amount, was sent to the Sheriff, 
to induce him merely to refuse to hang the prisoner. This fact 
was made known by the Sheriff himself ten days after the 
death of Colt. The silence of the Sheriff made matters uncertain, 
Uncertainty, to the mind of the condemned man, was hope ! 

" On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, he had been 
allowed unrestricted intercourse with his friends, and some one 
of them, doubtless, »in that period, gave him the dagger with 
which he destroyed himself, and the laudanum, scissors, and 
penknife that were found in his cell after death. He had these, 
he had the five hundred dollars, he had the confidence of the 
clergyman that he would not commit suicide, and might be left 



THE SOMRKS TRAGEDY 299 

alone for any length of time — he had the promise of the 
Sheriff that he should not be executed till the last moment — 
the setting of the sun — when an y accident like the firing of the 
prison, or the opening of the gates to admit fire-engines, (both 
of which occurred) might prevent the execution." 

Such were the materials for the journalist, and Mr. Bennett, 
who wrote on these topics with great impartiality, but on the 
side of the law and of the people, characterized the events 
as the most remarkable known to his experience as an editor. 
He thus closed his review of the circumstances : 

" Take it altogether, the murder — the boxing up of the 
body— the alleged salting of it — the trial — firing pistols in 
Court — cutting off the head, and* bringing the skull of the 
dead man into Court — the sentence, and defiance to the judge 
— the Park meeting — the threat to arrest the Sheriff — the 
money that seemed to flow like water — the various bribes — 
the mock piety — the holding a sort of levee in the cell on the 
day of the execution — the horrid marriage — the shocking sui- 
cide — and the burning of the jail, all combine to form a history 
that throws fable and romance for ever into the shade !" 

Surely here was an opportunity for a mercenary press to levy 
on the funds that " seemed to flow like water," if it were true 
that such a journal could be found. It was creditable to the 
improved character of the Press that no influential newspaper 
attempted to defeat the ends of justice ; and it was more than 
creditable to the Herald that it presented the whole case, in all 
its revolting particulars, in a spirit consonant with the best 
interests of the community, in harmony with the dignity of the 
law, and from a high moral stand-point. 

The Somers tragedy was commented on with similar inde- 
pendence, and, in view of the facts presented, the whole affair 
was criticised with becoming warmth, with reason, and with 
generosity befitting the singular circumstance. A son of the 
Secretary of War had been found on board the brig Somers, 
engaged in a conspiracy against the lives of the officers. His 
object was to take possession of the vessel for piratical pur- 
poses, much in the same way as young Samuel Comstock 



300 MR. BENNETT'S COURSE. 

undertook to take the ship Globe of Nantucket, about twenty 
years before. Both were inspired by the morbidity of their 
youthful intellect, which had been excited by the histories of 
pirates and the popular dealers in blood. Young Comstock as- 
pired to become the Napoleon of the Pacific ocean, and his 
career was closed at the Mulgrave Islands. His own band shot 
him down, after he had been their leader only a few weeks — 
and thus terminated the life of a singular being, who boldly 
killed the officers of the ship G-lobe, and then subdued the 
crew by the power of his mind and will. Both were members 
of distinguished families — full of natural talent, and aspiring 
for eminence, without respect to means or consequences, daz- 
zled with ambition for early distinction, and maddened by 
desires for the experience of power over their fellow men. 

Young Spencer was executed above the deck of the vessel 
in which he had matured his daring plans, two of his com- 
panions sharing his dishonorable fate. Such an event — so 
summary an execution, excited censure upon several of the 
officers of the Somers, from one portion of the community, and 
from another part, a full justification was expressed, even be- 
fore the facts were fully made known. 

Mr. Bennett awaited the revelations of the testimony with 
admirable care, and expressed his opinions from day to day 
with a regard for public justice which appears more praise- 
worthy as it is mellowed by time. His life was threatened for 
the course he adopted and pursued on the subject — yet he did 
not flinch from the stern dictates of duty, but followed up the 
case to its close with unfaltering attention, evidently bent on 
having the subject thoroughly understood. He perceived, 
doubtless, the importance of it as a precedent in the Govern- 
ment marine service, and the agitation of the theme was 
valuable. A tamer journalist would have quailed before the 
threats excited by the impartial course pursued. That he was 
correct in every position he may have taken need not be main- 
tained by a biographer. Here, as elsewhere in the volume, the 
attempt is not to side with Mr. Bennett m his opinions — but to 
defend his right to the expression of them, and, by this narra- 



CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 301 

tive, to show how far the Editor of the Herald stood above the 
misrepresentations of those who were inimical to his journal, 
and to him personally. Exemption from censure for his faults 
of judgment is not claimed. He would not claim it for himself. 
When full j convinced of his errors he has acknowledged them 
freely, and too often to permit any one to think that he be 
lieves in his own infallibility. In this very year, 1842, he pro- 
claimed that he had done injustice to the Medical University of 
New York, from a too confiding reliance upon an informant 
who was interested in making misrepresentations. 

In the Somers case, frankness, kindness, impartiality, mingled 
with a determination to be faithful to so important a subject, 
marked the Herald — and if the examination of the Colt tra- 
gedy had established the fact that the journal of Mr. Bennett 
was independent, that of the mutiny on board the Somers con- 
firmed it in the minds of every just and honest thinker. Be- 
sides, on the trial of Alexander, Mr. Bennett presented views 
of the condition of society that were justified by the facts daily 
transpiring. He assailed the mercenary lawyers for their 
peculiar conduct at the time, while he endeavored to uphold 
the laws. This was a bold course, but it had its uses. Law 
was becoming a mockery in the eyes of the people. The poor 
man was condemned/and executed — the rich man was found 
guilty, and ingenuity could invent means in quibbles to avert his 
legal doom. Monroe Edwards, the forger, was only deserted 
when it was ascertained that he had no money, and the popu- 
lar maxim was " with money enough, you can clear the vilest 
malefactor." 

This condition of society was fearful to the contemplative 
mind. It was producing mischief that struck its roots far down 
into the basis of society, and was there growing rapidly to 
overturn the very foundation of social life. The evil is not yet 
eradicated, but what it would have proved, had it not been 
checked in its rapid increase, may be conjectured by those 
whose memories can re-survey the atrocities upon property, 
character, and life itself, which have blotted the record of the 
past thirty years — atrocities perpetrated in forms so hideous 



302 THE BANKRUPTCY LAW. 

that even the freest imagination could scarcely parallel them 
upon the pages of a fiction. Of the origin of such a state of 
society it is easy to discourse, but to apply the remedy is the 
difficulty. One thing is certain — that the reckless abuse of 
the neighbor and of his property, and the low estimate of the 
value of human life operate in bringing about those tragic hor- 
rors which now and then awake society to a sense of its own 
danger. In the front, is that class of men who threaten their 
neighbors with personal violence and death. Back of these is 
a class indulging in habitual animosities, vented in slanders, 
and in tricks to gain an advantage over others, either by fight- 
ing, gambling, or robbing. Beyond these is another class which 
make heroes of the two front ranks, and lay wagers upon their 
skill. Behind these may be found a large and increasing class 
ever practising wrong upon others by the avowed honorable 
ways of custom and law — men who plot in stocks which they 
know are designed to cheat the unwary, and with which they 
deal as the gambler does with cards, upon the issue of the 
game, giving an example to the young, deleterious beyond 
estimate, while they take high external positions by means of 
their wealth drawn from gambling courses. To run further 
back, is to come upon another class of men, who, mingling with 
the reputable merchants and brokers of society, ever study to 
entrap the needy with their money, and whose only horror 
seems to be that they cannot abolish the usury laws, so as to 
combine with other capitalists and hold in their own grasp all 
the real estate upon which money is loaned. Thus evil is 
generated by example. Companions are made by the thought- 
less, wrong is justified, and the moral commercial standard is so 
degraded that its effect is felt in the remotest extremities of 
society, as well as at its very vitals. 

The operation of the Bankruptcy Law in 1842 gave Mr. 
Bennett an opportunity to deal with facts and figures in a way 
that had been known only to the British Press. The law was 
popular with those who wished to make use of it, but it was 
viewed by men who esteemed an honest debt as a moral obli- 
gation to be a dangerous innovation. Mr. Bennett eventually 



THE DICKENS FESTIVALS. 303 

was opposed to the law, and the mode he took to render it dis- 
tasteful was curious. Several of his old enemies went into 
Bankruptcy, and their schedules, being public property, were 
copied from the court records into the Herald. This kind of 
publicity was such as did not suit the persons who were con- 
templating financial purgation ; and, in process of time, the 
Law ceased to operate. It had been created by an apparent 
necessity, and was unsuited to the character of American 
institutions. The agents of the banks were opposed to it on 
other grounds, and whatever good it may have effected in 
individual cases, and at the time for which it was used, it was 
not suited to take its place permanently in the statutes. 

One case was published by the Herald which caused the af- 
flicted party to seek redress at law. The applicant for a cer- 
tificate to release himself from debts, showed that he owed men 
of almost every class and condition in life. The schedule was 
more important than ten thousand arguments in making people 
understand the operation of the law. There was evidence 
enough that the richest man might be sustained in defrauding 
the poor tradesman. Great good was effected by the publica- 
tion. It is almost needless to add that the attempt to punish 
Mr. Bennett for what he had done, utterly failed. He was 
sustained by the good sense of the community, and the liberty 
of the Press was not abridged by the step taken against the 
Herald. . 

This year was marked, also, by much excitement in the 
fashionable and literary circles. Charles Dickens, the novelist, 
received public honors in the shape of balls, dinners, and fes- 
tivals. The Herald took a sensible view of the popular excite- 
ment, which is now remembered only to furnish a theme for a 
hearty laugh or a pleasant story. Mr. Dickens bore these 
inflictions with admirable philosophy ; and, in his hurried and 
superficial views of American life, repaid the " people of the 
States" richly. The highly amusing narrative of his tour in 
this country has seldom been equalled in that kind of humor 
that makes readers laugh in spite of their determination to be 
serious. Even Poindexter's curious report on the New York 



304 THE WAR IN RHODE ISLAND. 

Custom House, which was made at the time Mr. Dickens was 
enjoying these ovations, had nothing in it so well calculated to 
excite interest and create amusement. 

In speaking of the events in May, Mr. Bennett said : 
" What do we see around us 1 Rhode Island on the brink 
of a civil war, perchance in the midst of it at this moment — a 
large portion of the county of Schoharie, commanding the 
Helderberg hills, in a state of insurrection — Lynch law in 
various parts of the country — the general Government without 
power or authority, and the Chief Magistrate treated by both 
parties as a common vagabond — Congress demoralized and 
useless, arising from the conflicts of factions, of duellists, and 
of fanatics — half the Banks in the country disregarding the 
sacred obligations of justice, and violating the law at their 
pleasure." 

This language was not an exaggeration. It did not give a 
full picture of the condition of things, but merely the broadest 
general outline. The civil war in Rhode Island was no trifling 
matter, as subsequently was ascertained. Thomas Wilson 
Dorr was at the head of an insurrection which might have 
terminated most disastrously to that section of the country. 
Happily, the progress of his treason was stayed before any 
great injury had been inflicted, and thereby a precedent of a 
most dangerous kind was avoided. Mr. Bennett discreetly 
ridiculed the whole affair, but it was a subject that engaged all 
the soul and intellect of Rhode Island, and at one time 
threatened to deluge that state with blood. Those persons 
alone who were in the midst of the excitement knew the 
condition in which men's minds had been placed in that excit- 
ing controversy. The friends and partisans of the Royal 
Charter, and those who were determined to live under what 
they termed a republican constitution, were divided about 
equally, and had the conflict taken place it is impossible to 
surmise what would have been the result. Governor Dorr was 
treated leniently ; but had he lived in another age, or in 
another country, his life would have paid the forfeit of bis 
temerity. 



LIBELS ON MR. COOPER. 305 

This year was distinguished, also, as was the preceding one, 
by the zeal, activity, and talent with which James Fennimore 
Cooper, the novelist, prosecuted several persons for a series of 
studied and virulent libels. Mr. Cooper was abused, in no 
measured terms, in many public newspapers, and the journal- 
ists departed from their proper province of criticism, to give 
reality to their suppositions as to Mr. Cooper's habits, tastes, 
and feelings. The war on this author was as determined and 
fiery as it had been at any time against Mr. Bennett. The 
purpose of it was to destroy Mr. Cooper's popularity as an 
author, whose works of fiction, thirty-four in number, contain a 
library in themselves which will endure as a lasting monument 
to his memory. No intelligent lover of his country can neglect 
these treasures, for they embrace the most truthful and graphic 
pictures of the original scenery of the country, in addition to 
correct portraitures of the manners, customs, and incidents 
which have marked the career of the American people. That 
a man so gifted with genius, so exalted by industry, so exem- 
plary in all the relations of private life, should have been 
assaulted by political agitators, and by envious rivals, is not 
strange. His enemies imagined that they could destroy his 
literary and personal reputation by their own pens, for which 
they claimed limitless freedom of expression, while Mr. Cooper 
was denied any similar privilege. In fact, the quarrel with the 
novelist commenced because he had given his philosophical 
opinions on the nature of society and government. His assail- 
ants fought strenuously for the liberty of the Press, but they 
seemed anxious to have the whole of it to themselves — for they 
were enraged at Mr. Cooper's opinions, as expressed in his 
published volumes. Had they confined themselves to the 
character of these views, some of which were peculiar, it would 
have been well, but they were not so discreet. They made 
unjustifiable attacks upon the character of the man and of his 
habits, overlooking the true issues of criticism. 

Mr. Cooper was assailed for a long time, without heeding the 
onslaught made upon him, but after bearing the evil five years 



306 REVIEWERS CYNICS. 

or more, he resorted to legal measures for redress, for he had 
been seriously injured by his enemies. 

The persons who were concerned in these alleged libels will 
show that the animus of the attacks on Mr. Cooper was chiefly 
of a political kind. They were James Watson Webb, William 
L. Stone, Thurlow Weed, Horace Greeley, and others who 
imitated these writers. Mr. Cooper, in one point of view, was 
unwise in noticing them, for such matters always sink to a 
level below contempt, however prominent they may be at the 
time they are presented to the public. 

The very works which were selected by the reviewers upon 
which to disclose their political animosity, are now esteemed 
highly interesting, and are increasing in importance every day, 
for time has shown that much of their philosophy is found to 
be true, and all of it is important to the inquiring mind. Criti- 
cism based on political prejudices has been infamous in its 
character in every age of society, and has clouded truth more 
than can be estimated. It has proved the bane of many minds, 
and few have dared to breast its attacks. Could all the libels 
which have been written against authors and statesmen be 
collected, they would form a library in themselves, which 
would surpass in grossness of language and falsification, the 
unwritten infamies of the haunts of ignorance and vice, and 
the bickerings of all the prisons of Christendom. 

There is a lurking love of tyranny of opinion in every 
author who assails another merely because his political tenets 
are at variance with the temporary avowals of a party ; and 
men who become cynical by habits of thought or by professions 
of attachment to particular dogmas, are dangerous as leaders 
of the multitude. Such men are the worst kind of cynics, who 
are always shallow men. Life has no vastness, no profundity. 
They affect to wonder that another man does not see with their 
eyes, rather than with his own. Hence arise the discords which 
mar the music of every age. Hence it is that the battle of. life 
never ceases. Hence it is that sects emasculate truth, and 
stay its natural progress 'over down-fallen error. In the strife 
to gain too much, all is lost. The world, from the very nature 



A DUEL AND CIGARS. 307 

of tilings, never to be taken by storm, is incessantly assailed. 
Motives, pursuits, professions, are scandalized, and even reviled. 
The dignity of men's positions is denied — the peculiar mission 
of a man is not respected. The hand is always raised against 
the brother. The harmony that keeps the motions of worlds 
together is broken, and a species of madness pervades the busy 
action of life. 

A better state cannot be expected, till men are taught to 
regard each other's motives and pursuits with more charity, 
and to enjoy the utmost toleration of opinion. There is no 
pursuit strictly honorable in itself that may not confer dignity 
upon him who embraces it, if he be true to the purpose of his 
existence. There is no dishonorable pursuit when its quality 
can add to the sum of human happiness — as there is no thought 
that is valueless that may lead a man nearer to the door of 
truth ; and he is a poor philosopher who does not comprehend 
all the relations of action in which man engages, when his 
thoughts are concentrated upon the interests of the world's 
people. 

On the evening of the 24th of June, Mr. Bennett wrote his 
first letter of the fashionable season from Saratoga — at that 
very hour when Mr. Webb, the editor of the Courier mid En- 
quirer, was at Wilmington, Virginia, arranging the prelimina- 
ries resulting from the acceptance of Thomas F. Marshall's 
challenge to fight a duel. The next day the meeting took 
place. The result was that the challenged party received a 
slight wound near the knee during the encounter, and was 
imprisoned subsequently for his disobedience to the laws. In 
this affair, Mr. Webb's conduct excited much sympathy, and 
Mr. Bennett was the first to sign a petition for his pardon, 
which was granted soon after by Governor Seward, on condi- 
tions most singularly and clumsily expressed. Perhaps it 
should not be omitted that Mr. Bennett, having received a note 
from a cigar dealer, stating that some one, in his name, had 
directed some cigars to be sent to the prison for Mr. Wobb, 
replied to it thus laconically — " Send the best." Of course 
Mr. Webb would not receive the present. This incident was 



308 POLITICAL QUESTIONS. 

the source of much merriment at the time, and was more than 
once alluded to by the Herald, which caused many a hearty 
laugh for its readers, with the majority of whom the " cigar 
story " was considered a practical joke. 

Mr. Bennett once said, in his comical way, that he did not 
know how far his power would go to assist Mr. Webb. He was 
surprised at his " insulting a box of one hundred of the very 
best cigars, by threatening to kick them into the street instead 
of smoking them. If he will apologize like a reinstated gen- 
tleman, for that conduct, and smoke one of those cigars, as the 
Indian does the calumet, as an emblem of peace, we will go to 
Delaware and settle his business quietly, or throw a wet 
blanket over the length and breadth of that state that will 
bury it in a thick fog till the day of judgment come — on the 
23d of April, 1843, according to Prophet Miller." 

This certainly may be regarded as one of the prettiest speci- 
mens of wit and good humor known to the American press. 
The allusion to the " calumet " — its association with the In- 
dian's blanket, and the diminutive state of Delaware, and 
possibly with the Indians of that region, not then quite extinct, 
gracefully enough displayed the natural merriment of Mr. 
Bennett's disposition. 

Mr. Bennett, during his tour, visited Lake George, Ticon- 
deroga, Lake Champlain, St. John's, La Prairie, Montreal, and 
other parts of the Northern border, communicating by letters 
faithful descriptions of the scenery and incidents noticed in his 
travels. He was accompanied by Mrs. Bennett and their 
infant son. 

In August, 1842, the people were excited by the probable 
issue of the contemplated treaty between Great Britain and 
the United States, which was finally confirmed by the Senate, 
and known as the Ashburton treaty, Lord Ashburton, sent out 
as a special Plenipotentiary, in the British frigate Warspite, 
having disposed of the subject. The Boundary question, the 
Creole, Caroline, and Right of Search questions were then 
uppermost, and the political parties were undecided as to the 
best position at so exciting a period. The proposed treaty ^vas 



THE ASHBURTON TREATY. 309 

nearly the same as that which arose out of the award of the 
King of the Netherlands, and which was rejected by the 
Senate during the Presidency of Jackson. With proper modi- 
fications, however, the treaty was ratified, happily for the best 
interests of both nations and of the world. It was the most 
important movement of the present century in the diplomatic 
history of the country. 

While the action of the Senate was pending, Mr. Bennett 
said very truly : " Lord Ashburton and Mr. Webster have 
done more than all the armies, and statesmen, and commanders 
employed in two wars. They have laid the foundations of a 
lasting peace, and extensive commercial intercourse, lucrative 
to both countries, which nothing but the devil, or his deputies 
— the politicians, can ever unsettle, or even shake for a single 
instant." 

Mr. Bennett, in summing up events, at the close of the 
summer, concluded his remarks thus : 

" The aspect of nature at this season is the very reverse of 
her ordinary appearance ; and the moral atmosphere seems to 
keep pace with the natural. We have had more unnatural 
murders, horrid crimes, flagrant defalcations, infamous elope- 
ments, robberies of banks, crim. cons., breaches of private trust, 
repudiations by brokers, violations of social confidence, abuses 
of immense magnitude by public officers, court martials of big 
and little officers, scandalous conduct naval and military, 
disobedience to superiors, dreadful delinquencies in duty, and 
every conceivable shape and modification of human turpitude 
that could deform the surface of civilized life. 

" And yet we are prosperous as a people, blessed of Heaven, 
and happy. And why ] Because the politicians and their 
clique form but a miserable minority of the nation. The 
majority of the people of this country are honest, hard work- 
ing, patient, pious, persevering, talented, tenacious of their 
rights, and able at all times to maintain them. With such a 
people — such a climate, and such a soil, we have resources 
within ourselves that enable us to correct every family error, 



3i0 IMMIGRATION. 

rectify the balance of the world, and whip it into decency 
whenever it deserves it." 

There is no more appropriate place in these pages than this, 
to express Mr. Bennett's views, briefly, on the value of emi- 
grants to this country, though the Old world will learn its folly 
in losing so much of its wealth, when it may be too late to 
apply the best remedy — the loss of each consumer and laborer 
being no small item when considered in connexion with 
individual and national wealth. Mr. Bennett thus writes : 

" We have repeatedly spoken of the immense value and 
importance the system of emigration is to this country, when 
it is properly directed, and in right hands. Let us look at the 
following table of the number of souls that have arrived in 
this city alone for the last ten years, with a low estimate of the 
actual amount of wealth they have brought with them. 

" Passengers arrived in the Port of New York. 

1832, 38,815 $1,500,000 

1833, . 39,440 1,600,000 

1834, 39,461 1,600,000 

1835, 43,959 2,000,000 

1836, 49,922 2,000 ; 000 

1837, 51,676 2,200,000 

1838, 24,2]3 1,000,000 

1839, 47,688 2,000,000 

1840, 60,722 3,000,000 

1841, 55,855 2,500,000 

1842, to the 15th day of August, . . 55.386 2,500,000 

507,137 $21,900,000 

" Here, then, we have, in the short space of ten years, half 
a million of people landed in this city. What nonsense — what 
madness, then, for a certain set of men to be eternally abusing 
the poor emigrants, who come to this country as the last resting- 
place of freedom on earth, bring their families and their all 
with them, and desire by their honest industry, to earn an 
honest livelihood for themselves, and leave a good name to 
their children after death ! This world is wide enough — this 



MORMONISM. 311 

country is large enough for the whole human family. None 
but the enterprising and industrious come here. Let us receive 
them kindly." 

Notwithstanding the number of emigrants in a single week* 
in 1855, may be from three to four thousand souls, Mr. Bennett 
yet maintains the same spirit towards aliens, his compre- 
hensive intellect well perceiving that their descendants will 
prove, under our republican institutions, the ornaments of 
civilization and the glory of the country, in the government 
of which they may be indirect, and even direct, agents. 

Many singular facts connected with the origin, history, and 
practices of Mormonism were published in the Herald in the 
course of the year 1842. They awakened the people to the 
dangers inseparable from an adhesion to the faith upon which 
this remarkable and delusive system of religion is founded ; 
but the leaders of the sect having craftily removed to regions 
on the outer borders of civilization, where the power of the 
Press cannot be felt, the progress of this strange community 
has been wonderfully rapid. How far its power may extend 
is only to be conjectured, but the world's history enables the 
philosopher, with a prescient glance, to discern through the dim 
future an important political growth, that eventually may b'e 
troublesome to the new States on the Pacific, particularly if 
Asiatic emigration, with its attendant religious systems, should 
be brought to coalesce with these strange offshoots of American 
civilization. Who can tell what will be the condition of the 
population there a century hence % Who doubts that it will be 
a singular re-unition of the Race % 

Mr. Bennett pursued the same course towards the acts of the 
President and his Cabinet that has marked his career as a 
journalist since he broke from the thraldom of party. The 
political hostility displayed so generally towards John Tyler 
did not infect the Herald, which condemned to-day, or praised 
to-morrow, as each act displeased or gratified the judgment of 
the Editor. Such conduct could not please political partisans, 
but it is the only course for an independent journal, as it places 
it in the position not only of an upright censor but of an im- 



312 tyler's administration. 

partial judge. The Herald has gained not a little of its influ- 
ence in society by this manly and patriotic desire to view the 
acts of the Government apart from all mere party considera- 
tions — thus insensibly almost breaking up the ridiculous shack- 
les of political association. 

Mr. Bennett has declared always that there is no real and 
important distinction between parties in this country. The 
difference, he has asserted, is a mere shadow — a fictitious or 
artificial difference — a passion and a prejudice — not amounting 
to a principle — heightened and exaggerated by political parti- 
sano, who make politics a trade to delude the people into their 
support. The difference between the Whigs and Democrats is 
very little — not amounting to anything in the principle of a 
republic. 

" To attempt to show that Mr. Tyler's administration has 
placed itself upon the old Jeffersonian platform, or that it es- 
chews the leaven of federalism, is a trick of rogues to impose 
upon honest mien. Mr. Tyler's administration is elevated far 
above the Jeffersonian platform — far above all party — far above 
all moth-eaten prejudices. From his first accession to power, 
we have watched its operation, and supported its policy because 
it is adapted to the spirit of the age — because it has broken 
loose from all party — because it has taken a high, moral, inde- 
pendent position, above all party, all faction, and thrown itself 
upon the intellect, morals, intelligence, justice, and patriotism 
of the whole nation for its support. We have also approved 
all the vetoes of the President, not because a bank is not con- 
stitutional, for we firmly believe it is — but because the horrible 
morals of the financiers of the present day have unfitted the 
country for any bank — or any currency other than gold or 
silver. Within the last few years nearly one hundred and 
fifty banks, including the United States Bank, have broken to 
pieces, and property amounting to a hundred and fifty millions 
of dollars, or more, has evaporated under the management of 
the bankers and financiers of the age. On this ground alone, 
the veto power is justified." 

It was said by one of the malefactors of this period that the 



THE CODE OF HONOR. 313 

reason why lie perpetrated a hideous crime was that he was 
insulted by the victim of his vengeance. This word " insulted " 
was taken as a text by Mr. Bennett, and he discoursed upon it 
in his customary sententious style :- — 

" In this single word ' insulted ' exists the key that unlocks 
the mystery of the demoralization of the age* Let us explain. 
" Our young men, instead of being taught the precepts of 
Jesus Christ, as he delivered them on the Mount, have their 
minds filled with personal pride — personal consequence — the 
false theme of modern honor, with its machinery of insults, 
satisfaction, resentment, passion, duels, and death. The same 
principle of inhuman morals which has brought Colt to his 
awful end, was the cause of the murder of Cilley — led to the 
murder of McCoy (killed in a prize-fight), brought about the 
duel between Marshall and Webb, which came very near end- 
ing in the murder of the latter. 

" This principle is the false idea of honor— the false concep- 
tion of fame — the false feeling of human pride. It is a portion 
of the same feeling which caused the overthrow of Satan and his 
angels — and has caused all the sorrow and trouble in the world 
since the first murder of Abel in sight of Paradise, and before 
the face of the Almighty himself. To correct this false princi- 
ple of human life, the second essence of the mysterious Trinity 
came down upon earth — made his appearance in the vales of 
Judah, under the name of Jesus Christ, and taught the world 
a more heavenly, purer, and loftier 'system of morals, than that 
of placing personal honor, not on what others say or do to you, 
but in your own heart — in your own acts — in your own deeds, 
and in the regulation of your own passions, beyond and above 
the influence or opinions of a wicked and corrupt world. 

" Here exists the great error in the education of the youth 
of the present age of the world. They are taught the vain 
principle of personal honor, as it is understood by a vain and 
silly world — and not that holy principle that rests on the rock 
of moral rectitude, accompanied by moral courage, that will 
stand the test of opinion— -in time and eternity — of the race of 
men and of the race of angels. Hence we see the fruits of this 

14 



314 FOREIGN QUARTERLY it-EVIEW. 

false moral education in the weak and worthless administration 
of justice — in the corruption of banks — legislatures — courts — ■ 
juries and communities." 

In the October number of the Foreign Quarterly Review 
appeared an article principally devoted to the New York 
Herald and its Editor. The testimony adduced by the writer 
to prove his case against Mr. Bennett was drawn solely from 
the columns of the American journals opposed to the Herald, 
and writhing under its success and government patronage. 
As an instance of the judgment with which this species of 
evidence was selected, it should be mentioned that an article 
headed " Colt and Bennett" — the object of which was to place 
the Editor on a level with a man convicted of murder — had a 
prominent position, from which the conclusions of the reviewer 
radiated. If the American journals were censurable for their 
tone and forms of expression, it did not become the reviewer 
to be the censor, for he erred himself in the same libellous 
course which he proposed to censure — neither philosophizing 
correctly upon the causes of the strange language found in 
American journals, nor having an acquaintance with the true 
condition of things, or with the characters of the men which 
should have engaged his attention, and invited his discrimina- 
tion. 

The issue of Judge Noah's then recent libel suit against Mr. 
Bennett, in which the latter was fined three hundred dollars, 
was a chief topic of the reviewer, also, the newspaper com- 
ments on that affair being the testimony brought forward to 
place Mr. Bennett's character in the worst possible light. 

The article was a useful one, however, in some respects, for 
it classified some facts in American journalism, which, when 
brought together, were calculated to improve the manners and 
methods of journalists. 

The Foreign Quarterly Review was not alone in the cause in 
which it had engaged. The British journals were brought to 
bear, with their best artillery, upon Mr. Bennett and his journal, 
although some of them brought their guns up in his defence 
One, on the side of the assailed, and wholly a stranger to Mr 



A REPLICATION. 315 

Bennett, but one who knew all the circumstances, and all the 
men of the time so well, as to be able to pierce into the motives 
for this bold attack on Mr. Bennett, published an explanation 
of the fitful ire that had taken possession of the British 
metropolis. A few sentences may be extracted from several 
columns on the subject, to show that the whole world, with 
every man, was not swallowed by the vortex of passion and 
prejudice which was excited between two nations for the 
annihilation of one individual journalist. 

" The New York Herald has been one of the most powerful 
instruments in the United States in exposing the frauds, bub- 
bles, and stock-gambling machinery which our fund-mongers 
had organized in America for robbing the land and labor of that 
country, as they have robbed this since the days of Walpole. 
For correctness of detail, research, industry, sound political 
economy, and decided talent, the New York Herald might 
challenge a comparison with any daily paper in Europe. Its 
money articles have not yet been equalled on this side of the 
water ; but it is the bold, and able, and honest exposure of the 
corrupt paper system which those money articles contain, and 
not the wit, levity, and colloquial humor of the Herald which 
has excited the indignant reprobation of our money-changers. 

" This war has burst out since Lord Ashburton returned 
from America with his finger in his mouth. It might be in- 
structive to inquire on what evidence do these Threadneedle 
street philosophers pronounce the degeneracy of the people, 
and the failure of their republican institutions. If these sturdy 
republicans are such monsters as they are represented to be, 
and their institutions a failure, what intellectual and physical 
signs of the facts do they present ? During the present year 
we have seen two remarkable instances of their great intellect- 
ual superiority and moral power, over the combined mind and 
moral force of Great Britain. Their representative at the 
Court of St. Cloud, General Cass, by one effort of his capa- 
cious intellect, rent to atoms the Quintuple Treaty which, our 
statesmen spent months in cooking up in Downing street. He 
scattered its broken fragments to the winds, at the very 



316 AMERICAN DEGENERACY. 

moment when we fancied that the commerce of the civilized 
world was under the surveillance of British naval officers. 
Our statesmen have had to pocket the mortifying defeat which 
they have suffered from the superior intellect of the American 
statesman who represented his country at the Court of 
France." 

" The correspondence hetween Lord Ashburton and Mr. 
"Webster at Washington is another signal evidence of Ameri- 
can superiority." 

" Lord Palmerston had very cavalierly, and with rather in- 
sulting nonchalance, declared that Great Britain would exercise 
the Right of Search, no matter to what nation the ship be- 
longed ; and when Lord Aberdeen came into office, he iterated 
the same. Now behold the disgraceful position we have been 
placed in. Mr. Webster boldly tells Lord Ashburton, what 
General Cass told M. Guizot, that the American government 
would never tolerate the exercise of such a right on the part 
of Great Britain ; and Lord Aberdeen now, in the face of the 
threats of General Cass and Mr. Webster, virtually abandons 
the whole ground which he and Lord Palmerston assumed as 
an unquestionable right." 

" While Great Britain has thus, in eight months, exhibited 
two signal instances of intellectual inferiority and pusillanimi- 
ty, these degenerate Americans have achieved over us two 
mental triumphs, not inferior to their memorable capture of 
Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown sixty years ago, and the de- 
struction of Lord Pakenham and our army before New Orleans, 
in 1815." 

" This is the evidence of American degeneracy which our 
money-changers wail over. To people accustomed to think 
and trace effects to causes, such evidence would lead to the 
conclusion that universal suffrage, untaxed knowledge, and 
frequent elections, are producing in America a nation, which 
for intellect, enterprise, arts and arms, and universal comfort, 
has never been equalled." 

Thus was the Herald and the character of American institu- 
tions, of which it was the exponent, defended on British ground, 



THE SECRET ARCHIVES. 317 

by one who comprehended the motives of the assault, and had 
his eyes open to the flagrant injustice and inexcusable igno- 
rance of the assailants. The moral and political war raised 
against republican institutions in general, and those of the Uni- 
ted States in particular, was generated in the heart of cold- 
blooded Finance. It failed and quailed before the march of 
Truth ; and the New York Herald went on its way rejoicing, 
ever active, lively, witty, agreeable, and powerful, according to 
the necessities of the day for which its columns were prepared. 

Great good resulted, therefore, from the discussion of these 
themes. It not only produced a better understanding between 
Great Britain and the United States, but it stayed a course of 
political corruption that had been attempted on the part of 
politicians and financiers. Could the secret archives of the 
Herald establishment speak plainly, the world would be asto- 
nished at the peculiarity of its revelations, and would know 
how to justify the course of the Editor, in view of the fa'cts 
entrusted to him for prudential uses, while it would not be 
much amazed to find that its power and knowledge should 
inflame the passions of men whose patriotism is barter and sale 
— and whose love of country is love of plunder and the spoils 
of office. If the Herald is feared by corrupt politicians it is 
not so much for what it has said, as it is for what it has the 
power to say and to prove. Its very power consists in holding 
rods which have been placed in its hands by those with whom 
love of country is an abiding thought, and who need not fear 
the betrayal of their confidence. These are the fasces of its 
authority ; and while they surround the axe, the blows which 
are given are dictated by justice itself. Traitors alone will 
tremble ! 

In concluding the present chapter, a single glance may be 
taken at the condition of literature at this period. It was the 
brilliant season of cheap publications, the year closing with the 
demise of the New York Mirror, conducted by George P. Mor- 
ris associated with N. P. Willis — a literary newspaper which 
for its neatness of typography, courtly bearing, and literary 
merit, had held the first position among literary journals. It 



318 CHEAP REPRINTS. 

was in the twentieth year of its publication when it ceased to 
exist — and had outlived more than a hundred rivals. 

The cheap publications were beginning to revolutionize the 
reading public — breaking up the old habits and tastes of the 
people. This was easily accomplished while the Penny Press 
was making strides towards public favor and patronage. About 
1840 the fashion for cheap publications was encouraged by the 
Brother Jonathan, which contained English tales, novels, and 
such matter as promised to meet with favor. Park Benjamin, 
the distinguished poet, associated with Jonas Winchester, then 
carried the idea out by issuing the New World, in which Bul- 
wer's works and many new novels by English authors were 
published. This was the first attempt of any magnitude to 
compete with the great publishing houses. The house of Har- 
pers, for a time, competed at low prices, but finally fell back 
upon their old system and their own copyrights, although they 
had nearly the whole book-selling merchants as agents, and 
could distribute books rapidly. 

The Herald and other cheap papers had prepared tracks 
and routes which only needed the energy to be filled advan- 
tageously. This was soon done by the enterprise of Stringer 
and Townsend, who early in 1843, when associated with Mr. 
Burgess, entered upon the plan of cheap publications with 
great zeal and spirit, and established the system which has 
become so popular not only in this country, but throughout 
Great Britain. 

The speed with which a new English play sometimes was 
placed before the public was almost magical. A five act 
tragedy was often printed, published, and performed within 
three days after it had arrived in the country. There was a 
feverish enthusiasm in literature, all produced by the labors 
and effects of the cheap daily Press, which then was multiply- 
ing, and occasionally in a substantial form — like that of the 
Tribune, first issued on the 10th of April, 1841, and which has 
become a very powerful journal, even though connected with 
party politics — ably edited, and vigorously, if not always pru- 
dently, written — a journal in advance of the people, but not 



THE LANCET. 319 

less interesting or less valuable on that account, though certain 
to be less profitable to its owners, when compared with other 
establishments based upon a less ambitious and not so purely 
intellectual a foundation. 

There were steps taken by Mr. Bennett during the excite- 
ment attending the publication of cheap works, to which he 
was led by the favor with which many works were received 
by the public. He proposed to enter this field — then so 
seductive from its apparent profits — but, having felt the way 
cautiously, he retraced his course, and did not neglect the 
original sole object of his hopes, and of his ambition. It was 
at this time that he published the Lancet — devoted to the 
interests of the medical profession. He soon learned, however, 
that any independent Journal should not have anything more 
than its own character and its own interests to protect, if it 
would prosper — that a journalist should not be a printer, a 
bookseller, a political partisan, or an office seeker, if he would 
be true to his own position and profession, which ought to be 
superior to any honor that society can confer either as a bribe 
or as a reward. Luckily, the publishing plan of the Herald 
ceased — and, on reflection, Mr. Bennett deemed it best to look 
with unconcern even upon that portion of the government 
printing and advertising, which, however necessary to partisan 
journals, and however greedily desired by them, does not belong 
to a journal devoted to the people's welfare, and, until the 
laws designate the right conditions upon which government 
publications shall be made, irrespective of party considerations, 
cannot be enjoyed without question and reproach. Newspapers 
of the largest circulation, at all times, should be the adver- 
tising mediums of a republican government, or each daily 
journal should be empowered to publish at a stipulated price. 
Perhaps the latter is the simplest and cheapest course, as well 
as best calculated to give satisfaction to the public. 

Justice to Mr. Bennett requires that some of the malice 
displayed against him in the journals of 1843 should be 
unmasked — but as it is not the design of these pages to 
reanimate ancient feuds, many facts are now passed in silence, 



320 PURPOSES OF BIOGRAPHY. 

in the hope that that species of Journalism which belonged to 
the old age of politics and passion is now going out of fashion. 
The true purposes of biography are best fulfilled by narrating 
the broad and glaring facts connected with the talent and 
industry which have shaped a gigantic engine and placed it 
upon a smooth and easy road, without condescending to single 
out those mischievous and reckless persons who have 
endeavored to place impediments upon the track, or to pelt 
the vehicle with stones from dark corners, possibly in the hope 
of striking the conductor on the head and terminating his 
career. 



A PROSECUTION AND EULOGIUM. 321 



CHAPTER XXIII 



It will be remembered that during the operation of the 
Bankruptcy Act, the Herald published Anthony Dey's sche- 
dule of liabilities and assets, with comments. In February, 
1843, the prosecution of Mr. Bennett for this alleged libel on 
Mr. Dey, terminated in an acquittal. The prosecuting officer, 
Mr. Whiting, pronounced an eloquent eulogium upon the 
Herald. He said it was Mr. Bennett's pride and glory that his 
paper was circulated in every land and in every clime upon 
which the sun in the firmament shines. If you go to England 
you find it there. In France it is almost the only American 
paper that can be found upon file. It penetrates through the 
pathless snows and dreary wilds of Russia. Upon the summit 
of the Alps you may see it. If you travel to India you find it. 
It may be found in Switzerland and Germany. Upon the 
seven hills of Rome, and upon the time-honored and classic 
soil, and beneath the balmy skies of Italy, there you may read 
the Herald. Cross over the Bosphorus — go into Asia — and, in 
short, wherever the English language is spoken or translated, 
there does the New York Herald circulate. In view of this 
great circulation, and of this immense power wielded by one 
man, Mr. Whiting spoke of the great caution and discretion 
which should be used in conducting the paper. 

Mr. Bennett replied to this, and said that during his whole 
career, he would venture to say, he had committed fewer errors 
against the laws of taste, society, or good morals, than any 
other paper in the city. Errors had been committed, he allowed, 
but they were unintentional, and immediately corrected as soon 
as ascertained. 

14* 



322 A FEW FACTS. 

" But this did not satisfy our rivals, who hated us for our 
successful enterprise. It was not our conduct, as t-hey alleged, 
which they wished to amend — it was to destroy us and our 
establishment, so that they might occupy our position. Hence 
the terrible falsehoods first invented and published by the rival 
newspapers — hence the attacks not only on our journal, but on 
our character, on the very females of our family — on the^wife 
of one's own bosom. Never, perhaps, was there such an in- 
stance in the history of human nature, of such a conspiracy to 
destroy a man and his family, as there has existed in certain 
cliques in New York for the last few years, against us and the 
Herald. They attempted to drive us from our very apart- 
ments at the Astor House, by gross and false insinuations 
against characters in private life, as pure, as spotless, as 
honorable, as accomplished as any in this or any other 
country. 

" But there is a redeeming character in this community — 
there is a turning point in the affairs of men — which can 
always be reached by those who bide their time. That point 
is now at hand." 

It is true that the Herald circulated as was described in the 
glowing terms of Mr.Whiting, even at that early day. In 1855 
it has a wider circulation, and is a familiar journal at every 
court throughout the world, and in all intelligent communities. 
More than this is true. It has correspondents who write 
within the precincts of palaces, and at the very elbows of those 
who move the springs of political action. From the extreme 
limits of Asia, and the farthest shore of the Pacific, it is sup- 
plied with facts which enable it to form, under adequate study, 
the safest judgments and decisions. There is no power how- 
ever tyrannical, or arbitrary, or surveillant, that can bar its 
access to knowledge which the world has a right to acquire. 
There is no profession the highest intellect of which has not 
contributed to its columns. 

In mere circulation it surpasses anv other daily journal of 
politics, commerce, and finance. 



SLANDERS ON PUBLIC MEN. 323 

DAILY CIRCULATION OF THE NEW YORK HERALD FOR THE WEEK 
ENDING MARCH 31, 1855. 

Sunday, March 25 49,620 

Monday, " 26 53,160 

Tuesday, " 27 60,y60 

Wednesday, " 28 54,480 

Thursday, " 29 . 53,760 

Friday, " 30 . 56,880 

Saturday, " 31 ... 55,680 

Total, 334,920 

Average for six days, 55,820 

The assassination of Charles G. Corlis in Broadway in 
March, 1S43, and the full reports of the coroner's inquest in 
the Herald, caused almost as much interest as did those of the 
Court Martial with respect to the Somers Tragedy, just then 
terminated. The murder of Deacon White by his son Benja- 
min D. White, in Genesee County, New York, was another 
exciting topic. The address of the condemned man to the 
Court was a strange one, full of terrible warning on the growth 
above the primal virtues of the heart, of the passion of revenge, 
that, like a baleful weed, blights the brightest and sweetest 
flowers of affection, and leaves the once blooming soil a deso- 
late waste, full of the elements of disease and the seeds of 
death. 

In the spring of 1843 the Foreign Quarterly Review made 
the New York Herald the chief theme of a second essay on 
American Journalism. The writer surpassed his first effort in 
dignity of style, but did not make his case any clearer or more 
reasonable. His taste appeared to have suffered severe shocks 
when brought into conflict with Journalism, generally. Great 
stress was placed upon the slanders on public men, with which, it 
must be confessed, the party newspapers have teemed in Great 
Britain, France, and the United States. He did not, however, 
justly and fairly criticize. Had he perceived that Mr. Ben- 
nett's jokes were inseparable from the individuality of the 



324 CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 

journalist and a part of his system, which was based upon the 
peculiar temper and spirit of the American multitude — who are 
not so torpid and phlegmatic as the English people, and are 
more inclined to " read as they run," — he would have made no 
such mountains as he did of molehills. The moral value of 
his criticism, however, time acknowledges with thankfulness. 

Mr. Bennett reviewed the reviewer with his usual diserimi- 
nation, and from common-sense grounds, explained the preju- 
dices of the English writer, and the reasons of his astonishment 
at the condition of the American Press, when compared with 
the chief journals of Great Britain. 

" The motives which actuate these attacks on the Press of 
this country, are sufficiently obvious. Its influence is dreaded 
by the aristocratic classes of Great Britain. Our newspaper 
press is too much impregnated with democratic doctrines and 
democratic freedom of thought and speech, to be acceptable 
to the despotism of Europe. This is Avhat touches the party 
— of which this Review is the favorite organ — to the quick. 
Hence these torrents of abuse and vituperation. When to this 
rooted enmity to our institutions, we add the evident ignorance 
of these reviewers in relation to every subject connected with 
the state of society here, and the means which are employed to 
govern, modify, and alter public opinion, the weakness, folly, 
and violence of these articles, are sufficiently accounted for. 
These men think that by looking over a few files of various 
newspapers, and reading the accounts of silly travelling boobies, 
who spend a few months among us, that they have obtained 
ample materials for judging of the condition of society and the 
Press in this country ! 

"The progress of society in this country presents one of the 
most interesting subjects of study, that ever attracted the ener- 
gies of the human mind. There is no parallel case to which 
you can refer, and reason from analogy. Even men of the 
most expanded intellect, who have looked during their whole 
life-time on the scene, are wise enough to admit their incom- 
petency to pronounce an accurate judgment. Society is here 
ever in a transitive state. The march of mind is advancing 



SHAKSPEARE A JOURNALIST. 325 

with a rapidity never before exhibited. Men's emancipated 
energies are at work on a new field, where no barrier opposes 
them. The Press is adapted to the circumstances of such a 
state of society. There is a freedom of speech here, unknown 
in the old world. Occasionally there is a violence of language, 
when there is by no means a correspondent violence in action. 
Indeed, the every-day occurrences around us, give the lie to 
the slanders which would represent us as a nation of robbers 
and murderers. Without an organized police in any of our 
cities, they are as peaceful as the best governed cities of Eng- 
land. Nay, they are much more so. Seasons of the greatest 
political excitement pass peacefully over. We had, in this 
city, the other day, an election in which fifty thousand votes 
were taken, and there was scarcely so much as a bloody nose 
to indicate the occurrence of anything extraordinary. In 
England, such a season would have been marked by blood- 
shed — calling out of the military — reading of the riot act, and 
all that. 

" Yes, we can point proudly to all these things as tokens 
that we are respecters of the laws, and can conduct ourselves 
with order and decorum. As for the review which has elicited 
these remarks, it has excited only our pity for the writer, and 
occasionally a hearty laugh at his silliness, ignorance, and 
stupidity." 

Mr. Bennett might have contended that his course was quite 
equal to that of the journalists of the Elizabethan age — the 
dramatists of that period — whose publishing office was the pub- 
lic stage. What was Shakspeare 1 He was the great jour- 
nalist of his time ; and the people, far more than by his pedantic 
contemporaries, were influenced by his genius, which collocated 
facts, fancies, and morals for his own peculiar uses, and the 
advantage of mankind — just as American society, insensibly, but 
positively, has been moulded and shaped into its present 
condition, by the influence of the public journals. No one 
thinks of admiring or justifying the coarse and indecorous 
expressions of the great journalist of the Elizabethan era, but 
who would condemn, on account of their existence, all his 



326 BENEFICIAL INVENTORS. 

works ? Who would overlook his sublime leading articles — • 
his magnificent lay sermons and soliloquies — because they are 
interspersed with every little incident and allusion that tickled 
the fancy and flattered the erudition of the patrons of the 
" Globe " — then the Printing House Square of ancient London 
— where a single man concentrated the world's experience, 
and all the popular knowledge of his time, into a few publica- 
tions, issued orally for the convenience of the multitude ? 
Would it have been wise for Shakspeare, or well for the peo- 
ple, to sacrifice on the altar of a religious taste the means which 
were found most efficient in tempting the multitude to enter 
the temple of knowledge 1 

Shakspeare provoked a moral and literary war, as well as 
the modern journalist of the New World. He, too, was called 
by hard names — his education was scoffed at — his success 
elicited the malevolence of envy — but where was his superior 
in condensing the elements of knowledge and the illustrations 
of elevated and common history 1 Why did he prosper, while 
the polished diction of Ben Jonson palled, and the scholastic 
verse of many a rival pompously sounded, unheeded by the 
people 1 Let men of letters wail ever so long over the degra- 
dation of public taste, human nature will be the same in all 
ages, and he who writes above the censures of the critic, shall 
write for professed critics only. This is the law. Art ever 
must be inferior in its influences to that spontaneity of nature 
which charms the soul. It is not the man who perfects a use- 
ful invention that most blesses society by his labors, but it is 
he who originates one — who first launches his pinnace on the 
sea of doubt, and, amid the turbulence and dangers of an 
uncertain course, demonstrates that a path is opened by which 
the future may profit. Genius would grow chill with death, 
were it to wait listening for unqualified adulation — and the 
world would lose the very treasures which prove its ransom 
from the pains of intellectual bondage. 

The political topics incident to the aspirations for the Presi- 
dential Chair, in addition to the diplomatic discussions between 
the governments of Great Britain and the United States, occu- 



WEBSTER AND CLAY. 327 

pied the Herald in the early part of 1843. The tone of the 
British Press was not echoed by the friendly temper of Sir 
Robert Peel's government, which, happily for Great Britain 
and for the United States, was becoming liberal and compre- 
hensive. Daniel Webster, too, on this side of the water, was 
stilling the raging of all political elements by his masterly 
oratorical efforts. 

There was then a crisis for the development of a sound, 
rational, and national policy, which was needed by the people. 
For twenty years the country had been a battle-field of faction 
— devoured by the pestilential locusts of party. The people 
yearned for deliverance from that accursed spirit of politics, 
which permitted neither trade nor commerce the blessings 
and benefits of repose. None but the factionists and the 
political wranglers desired to perpetuate the struggles which 
are made solely at the expense of the people, to gratify 
politicians. 

Mr. Webster advocated a policy in his speech delivered at 
Baltimore, in May, which was noble, simple, and patriotic, and 
indicative of favor for the Reciprocity system in behalf of which 
Duff Green labored in London. He proposed the union of the 
agricultural, the manufacturing, and the commercial interests, 
moving in a similar retreat from his high-tariff position as Sir 
Robert Peel was about to make from his Corn Law policy 
towards Free Trade. This was approved, by the leading 
minds of New England, where a high tariff had been advocated 
as early as 1815. 

Like all efforts of American statesmen, Mr. Webster's views 
were deemed only so many tricks to help him into the Presi- 
dential chair. He was assailed both by the partisan Whig, 
and by the partisan Democratic newspapers — for the real hap- 
piness of the country was of little consequence, in comparison to 
the importance of placing some favorite idol, or tool, in the 
office of the Chief Magistrate. Neither Mr, Webster, nor Mr. 
Clay, were demanded by the country for that position. The 
glory of both belonged to a higher sphere than can be attached 
to a mere symbol of power. The crisis was not so imminent 



328 A VAIN EFFORT. 

as to demand the great powers of either. Had it been, the 
people would have defeated the hacks of party. 

Mr. Bennett supposed the danger was great, and standing 
superior to party, tried the people's spirit for a reform in poli- 
tics. They were not prepared for it. In his brief and compre- 
hensive style, he said : 

" The hostile agitation of interest against interest — clique 
against clique — section against section, which was introduced 
by certain politicians at the close of the European wars, has 
been the cause of all our financial troubles — our revulsions — 
our bankruptcies — our defalcations— and our immoralities of 
all kinds. A new era begins from this day forward. Courage !" 

Alas, the Herald was not strong enough to overthrow the 
machinations of the party Press, or the people were too 
sluggish to hurl their masters away. It had no coadjutors, 
then, on an independent platform, to do justice to its own will 
or good to the country — and its policy was, never to fight a 
battle in which there were not some chances for a victory. 
Besides, the highest order of intellect seems not to have had 
an affinity for the highest seat in the nation, at least since the 
days of President Madison. Are republics ungrateful, or have 
partisans pandered to their own appetites for spoils and plun- 
der, by interfering with the progress of intellect towards public 
exaltation % Or must the country passively submit to that 
dulocracy in politics which has become a stigma upon the 
nation, and a shame to the intelligence of the people 1 

In the month of June, one of the New York journalists 
pleaded guilty to an indictment for libel against Mr. Bennett's 
family. The article upon which the complaint was based was 
altogether the most rash and inexcusable attack known to the 
exciting newspaper controversies of the time. It was no less 
than an attempt to injure the character of Mrs. Bennett. As 
no good effect can be produced by a history of the circnm- 
stances, it may be passed over with propriety. The fact in 
itself is sufficient to show that the liberty of the Press, even 
at that day, was not well understood. The redeeming point 
was that the author of the libel acknowledged his error, and 



ARRIVAL AT LIVERPOOL. 329 

published a recantation of his statements — the only reparation 
that he could make, after the mischief had been accomplished. 
Doubtless, this circumstance had its weight upon Mrs. Bennett's 
mind, and created that distaste for a permanent residence in 
New York, which she has since displayed. A sensitive mind 
cannot endure such shocks. 

President Tyler made a Northern tour in June, and was 
present on that interesting occasion when Daniel Webster, on 
the 17th of June, in one of his ablest orations, consecrated the 
completion of the Bunker Hill Monument, eighteen years after 
his original speech, delivered in the presence of Lafayette and 
the veterans of the Revolutionary war,. The reports of the 
Herald on this last celebration were very full — and showed 
what an advance had been made by the Press. When 
Lafayette visited the country, after his imprisonment at 
Olmutz, the newspapers of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia 
were wonders in the history of Journalism, because they con- 
tained sometimes a column on the progress of the revered hero ! 
In those days, a corps of reporters was not known in any office. 
Many publishers and editors depended upon their literary 
friends for news and descriptions of events. This cost no 
money. 

On the 26th of June, Mr. Bennett, with his family, sailed 
for England in the packet-ship Garrick, Captain Skiddy. 
After a delightful passage of twenty -two days — the Atlantic 
being " as smooth as the North River" — he landed at Liver- 
pool on the 18th of July, three days before Mr. O'Connell 
delivered one of his Repeal speeches at the Second Tuam 
Demonstration. After the Liberator's return to Dublin, he 
received news from the United States, which prepared him to 
give Mr. Bennett a warm reception — for the Dublin correspon- 
dence of the Herald on Repeal — the articles in the Foreign 
Quarterly — and the letters to Mr. O'Connell from Mr. Bennett's 
enemies in New York, — had given such an impulse to the 
temper of the Agitator that he was disposed to attack him on 
the first favorable opportunity. He knew that Mr. Bennett 
would visit Dublin, as well as it was known in New York — and 



330 THE VISIT TO DUBLIN. 

how the matter terminated, and what else caused animosity, 
will be learned in the due course of the history. 

Mr. Bennett commenced his Editorial Correspondence the 
very day after his arrival. In his first letter, he said : " The 
Irish Repeal Question creates still much alarm, but it is 
beginning to assume the form of a mere opposition question to 
the present Cabinet, and will probably end in such a result !" 
Among the subjects of popular interest, he noticed favorably 
the visit to the United States of Mr. Macready, one of the few 
tragedians of this century who have succeeded in the intellec- 
tual school of dramatic art — and of which more are wanted — 
Davenports and Buchanans, and such students, who strive to 
excel by a close study of their profession, with reference to 
the demands of nature and reason, rather than those of a 
perverted popular taste. Always kind and generous to artists 
of merit, Mr. Bennett thus aided Mr. Macready, at a time when 
the latter had lost much of his fortune in endeavoring to do 
something for the elevation of the Drama — the only institution 
that has not advanced, or improved, in the last half century 
either in its character or its literature. In this year, also, he 
had helped on his way William Vincent Wallace, the musical 
composer, who visited New York for the first time, and other 
artists whose fame has not matured into any special distinction. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bennett soon went to London from Liverpool, 
and remained there two weeks. On the evening of the 4th of 
August they left the Great Metropolis for Dublin. While in 
London, Mr. Bennett was complimented everywhere by atten- 
tions, and all public places of amusement were open to him, the 
directors of them being anxious to have the honor of his 
presence. The great bankers of the metropolis, too, had begun 
to see that he was not the person that he had been repre- 
sented by the superficial critics of a preceding day. A bettei 
feeling had sprung up between the rival countries of commerce, 
and the financial storms were nearly at an end, The Sydney 
Smiths ceased to fulminate — and the financiers no longer 
dreamed of thunder or earthquakes. Mr. Bennett's visit 
proved to him that his disinterested course as a journalist wap 



ATTACK AT THE CORN EXCHANGE. 331 

appreciated in England — and that was a gratification and 
an encouragement for the future. 

Mr. Bennett arrived in Dublin on the 6th of August, where 
he remained several days, in company with his family, enjoy- 
ing the hospitalities of that beautiful city. Having signified to 
a friend his desire to hear O'Connell, who was then making his 
popular efforts on Irish Repeal, he visited the Corn Exchange, 
where a scene took place that was described in general terms 
by Mr. Bennett himself, in the annexed letter, which it is well 
to read, before the reports cited, from the public newspapers 
are examined. 

To the Editor of the London Times. 

Sir : — On my return to London, after a teur of three weeks over Ire- 
land and Scotland, I embrace the first opportunity of asking permission 
to reply to a very gross and unjustifiable attack made upon me on the 
7th aDd 8th instant, by Mr. O'Connell, in the Corn Exchange, Dublin, 
while as a mere traveller, I was quietly pursuing my journey through 
that city. This attack appeared in your Journal of the 9th and 10th 
instant, in the shape of a correspondence from Dublin, and has been 
circulated very extensively in the newspapers throughout the United 
Kingdom. 

In visiting Ireland, which I then did for the first time, I had received a 
number of introductory letters from a highly respectable Irish gentleman 
in London to a number of his friends in Dublin. Among these letters 
was one to Mr. O'Connell. I reached Dublin on the 6th instant, and 
having only a very short time to devote to that city, I procured a car- 
riage on the same afternoon, and called in person upon the gentlemen to 
whom my letters were addressed. Among others, I drove to Mr. O'Con- 
nell's residence, Merrion Square, and left my letter, together with my 
card, writing on it " Gresham's ' Hotel," where I stopped. During a 
course of nearly twenty years as an editor in the United States, eight 
years of which I have been proprietor of the New York Herald, I have 
always entertained and expressed a high and liberal opinion of Mr. 
O'Connell, and a warm sympathy for the Irish people. There was 
nothing, therefore, in our relations to make the introduction to him 
improper. 

Next day (Monday, August 7th) I went around Dublin, in company 
with a gentleman of that city, for the purpose of viewing the public 
buildings, institutions, and other sights. About two o'clock we had 



332 THE SECOND ATTACK. 

finished our tour ; but on our return to the hotel, I remarked, " I must 
see the Corn Exchange, and if possible hear O'Connell ; it will not do to 
return to New York without having seen that sight." 

We accordingly drove to the Corn Exchange. After paying a shilling 
admittance fee at the door, I attempted to get in, but it was so small and 
so crowded that it was found impossible. As a last effort, my name and 
residence were given at the private entrance. Several persons cried out, 
" Make way for the American gentleman ; " — " Why the divil don't you 
make way ?" — and I was handed in with as much attention to one Tom 
Steele as if I had been the bearer of a large amount of "rent" from New 
York to swell the funds of the association in Dublin. As soon as my 
name was mentioned to O'Connell, and while I was standing near the 
table, and quietly looking over the singular scene, I was assailed by Mr. 
O'Connell in those discourteous, inhospitable, and brutal terms, in which 
he was reported in your Dublin correspondence. The suddenness and 
abruptness of the outrage seemed not only to astonish his own auditors, 
but even to astonish himself, for he hurried over the scene and proceeded 
in his business at once. After taking a look around the assembly, I 
retired very quietly. 

Next day, Mr. O'Connell, being well aware of the gross breach of 
ordinary decorum he had committed, endeavored to justify himself by 
making an additional attack upon my public and private character — an 
attack equally unfounded, untrue, and malevolent. Having violated all 
decorum on the first day, he endeavored to justify that violation by 
deepening it into barbarity, falsehood, and outrage. Mr. O'Connell 
offered as a passive apology a statement made by a Mr. Silk Bucking- 
ham, to the effect that I had endeavored to extort money from the latter 
when he visited the United States a few years ago. This charge, and 
all such charges, I pronounce utterly untrue. Mr. Buckingham came to 
the United States on a money speculation, travelling through the coun- 
try, delivering lectures for pay on Oriental literature and customs. He 
sent his advertisements and self-laudatory notices (puffs, we call them) 
to the newspapers, and among others to mine. The clerk who attends 
to this branch of my business told his agent that his puffs were also 
advertisements, and must be paid for as usual. I never had any inter- 
course with Buckingham — never saw him — never heard him lecture; yet 
out of these simple facts Buckingham has manufactured the falsehoods 
he has published in his work, and Daniel O'Connell, in the extremity of 
some secret revenge, endorses his falsehoods in the Dublin Corn Ex 
change, and endeavors to assail the character of a man who feels himself 
to stand at least on as high a level of honor, morals, worth, and public 
spirit, as he does. 



IRISH EEPEAL AGITATION. 333 

The real motives which actuated Mr. O'Connell in making so unpro- 
voked an attack upon me, have hitherto been concealed from the public 
eye. I will now disclose them, and they will be found sufficient to account 
for his conduct. I contributed to stop the " rent " that was expected from 
America. This will be apparent in giving a brief sketch of the rise, 
progress and extinction of the Irish Repeal agitation in the United 
States, and of the position the New York Herald assumed in that 
business. 

The Repeal agitation began in New York several weeks before I left 
that city, which was on the 26th of June last. They held their then 
meetings nightly, for ten days or more, at a large building in Broadway, 
called Washington Hall. Immediately on the commencement of the 
agitation I was called upon by several of its leaders and promoters to 
ascertain my views on the subject, and whether I would support the 
movement. They were anxious to procure the aid of the Herald, because 
from its extensive circulation, and its superior corps of reporters, it would 
do the cause more good than any other paper. I thanked them for their 
good opinions, replying that I had for many years been friendly to the 
Irish people, who were a generous and a high-spirited race — that I had 
always supported their rights in the United States, and sympathized 
with their distresses in their native land; but that the repeal of the Irish 
Union was a very questionable and impracticable measure — that it could 
not remove social evils in Ireland — and that there was as much impro- 
priety in Americans endeavoring to promote the dismemberment of the 
British empire while we had treaties of amity in existence, as there was 
in certain fanatics in England, and even in Mr. O'Connell himself, in 
endeavoring to encourage an agitation against the Southern States, which 
might lead to a dismemberment of our own Union. They acknowledged 
the justice of the view, but apologized for Mr. O'Connell's abuse of the 
Southern States by attributing it to his ignorance of American opinion 
and constitutions, and especially to his ignorance of the character of his 
own countrymen when they come to the United States. 

They told me further, that many of them had the same view of the 
absurdity and impracticability of a repeal of the Legislative Union as I 
had, but they assured me that the great movement of Repeal in Ireland, 
with its affiliated movements in the United States, was only the beginning 
of a grand revolutionary drama, that soon would be able to subvert the 
monarchies and aristocracies of England, France, and all Western 
Europe, and establish republics throughout all those countries. On 
hearing this remarkable disclosure, I had nothing further to say about 
the technicalities of Repeal. 1 assured them that I would send my 
reporters to their meetings, and report their proceedings fully and 



334 O'CONNELL ON SLAVERY. 

accurately. I did so ; and in these reports will be found an open avowal, 
by their speakers and leaders, of the real meaning of the Repeal agita- 
tion, both in Ireland and the United States. At these meetings large 
sums were collected to be transmitted to Ireland; but among the native 
American population there was great doubt felt of the propriety of 
interfering with the internal affairs of Ireland — and there was a special 
objection to sending any money to Ireland, many probably thinking that 
the honest debts to foreign bond-holders should be first liquidated, before 
money should be generously sent to Dublin to create a revolution, or 
supply the wants of Daniel O'Connell and his men. 

In the midst of these feelings and views, while Repeal in New York 
was raging very high, and spreading rapidly all over the country, while 
the " rent" was coming in from all quarters, some of the papers began the 
publication of Mr. O'Connell's famous speeches in the Corn Exchange, 
abusing and calumnkting the Southern States, and avowing his purpose 
was to begin an agitation against them as soon as he should have finished 
his Irish business. These violent speeches I republished in the New 
York Herald, and that gave them a very extensive circulation. I wished 
the peace and commercial intercourse of the two countries preserved and 
invigorated, not violated and weakened. These speeches were published 
however, without any disrespectful remarks towards O'Connell. I still 
considered him to be a mau of as much purity of motive as of great 
talent and tact — although subsequent experience has, in my estimation, 
somewhat diminished both. 

The consequence of these publications, disclosing his attacks on the 
Southern States, and the promulgation of the whole truth, was to nip 
the Repeal agitation in the bud. Several meetings held in the neighbor- 
hood of New York turned out to be failures — little money was collected. 
In Philadelphia a Repeal meeting ended in a row, and little " rent." In 
Baltimore, Charleston, and other Southern cities, where Repeal associa- 
tions had been formed, and large sums of money just ready to be 
transmitted to Ireland to draw a smile from the " Liberator," as it was 
counted out in the Corn Exchange — in all these cities the associations 
distributed the " rent" for charitable purposes at home, and dissolved their 
existence forthwith. 

In this way as the proprietor of a largely circulating journal, and for 
simply publishing "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," 
was 1 one of the instruments in putting an end to the transmission of 
hundreds of thousands of dollars from the pockets of the poor and 
honest Irish and American people to the coffers of the Dublin Repeal 
Association, which no doubt is within the reach of the patriotic, pure, 
and loyal hands of Daniel O'Connell and his adherents. 



A eeporter's account 335 

Of all these facts no doubt Mr. O'Connell had received private intima- 
tion, and certainly they were quite sufficient to account for his gross 
breach of hospitality when I visited the Corn Exchange as one of the 
curious sights of Dublin. I received, however, during that visit the 
worth of the shilling I paid at the door — perhaps to a greater extent 
than I had by paying a sixpence at the Zoological Gardens in the 
Phceuix Park to see the wild beasts there. In both cases the tigers 
growled, and showed their teeth — but in the former case I learned to 
distinguish between a selfish and hypocritical patriot, and a generous, 
oppressed, and high-spirited people. For the distresses and social evils 
of the gallant people of Ireland, I have, as an American, a sympathy less 
expansive than Mr. O'Connell's, but equally as sincere — a hand that may 
not dive as deep into their pockets, but may be as liberal in its contri- 
butions to alleviate their real evils. I would not extort money from a 
distressed people under the shallow cry of patriotism, merely to supply 
my own necessities and extravagance. I would not try to extort money 
from my countrymen in a foreign land under the mask of beginning a 
great revolution, and when that attempt had failed by my own folly and 
ignorance, then abuse the people of that country, and insult a quiet 
traveller on his way, whose object was truth, kindness, and correct 
information. 

I am, 

Sir, 

Your most obedient servant, 
James Gordon Bennett, of New York. 
Long's Hotel, New Bond Street, August 28, 1843. 

The Dublin correspondence of the London Times alluded to 
contained this curious history : 

" The proceedings were here interrupted for a moment by the intro- 
duction of Mr. James Gordon Bennett, whose card Tom Steele handed 
to Mr. O'Connell, intimating that its owner (who then stood beside Mr. 
O'Connell) was the proprietor of the New York Herald. 

" Mr. O'Connell. — I wish he would stay where he came from ; it is a 
much fitter place for him than this. We don't want him here (Mr. Ben- 
nett, a gentleman about fifty years of age, suddenly retreated, as he 
entered, across the table). He is one of the conductors of one of the 
vilest gazettes ever published by infamous publishers. • (Laughter, and a 
partial disposition to hisses, which was suppressed by the Chair and 
persons around it.)" 



336 A.T HOME AGAIN. 

The people in the Corn Exchange did not relish this attack 
npon a stranger, and expressed their disapprobation of it, till 
the organization on the platform suppressed the further expres- 
sion of it. 

Mr. O'Connell's explanation of his conduct, to which Mr. 
Bennett has alluded, was in worse taste even than his first 
assault. He was not slow to slander at any time, and he not 
only libelled Mr. Bennett, but Lord Beaumont, and M. Savary, 
the Duke of Rovigo. Mr. O'Connell gave symptoms of the 
worst kind of political madness and tyranny. In fact, his head 
was then turned so far that his incarceration by the British 
government was soon found expedient to insure the general 
peace of the community. 

From Ireland Mr. Bennett's course was directed to Scotland, 
where he visited Glasgow and Edinburgh, and again saw his 
mother and sisters, after an absence of five years. When he 
was at Keith and New Mill in 1838, he had promised to bring 
a bride with him on his next visit, and he kept his word in that 
particular, faithfully. What additional arrangements he made 
for the happiness of the family there, it is not material to this 
biography to disclose, but the same prudent yet generous 
regard for his mother and sisters which ever had characterized 
him was fully appreciated by their hearts, which sympathized 
most deeply in all his happiness and in all his sorrows. He 
had become more serious and less impulsive, as he perceived 
the important relations existing between him and his offspring, 
since he last heard the pungent witticisms of Margaret, or 
contemplated the soberer mood of Annie, or listened to the 
counsels of his mother. Besides, the strides he himself had 
made in the profession to which he had devoted his life, were 
such that he could no longer deem his journal as anything less 
than an engine of vast power. In 1838 he was successful — 
but he was not so firmly established that caprice or competition 
might not blight his hopes. In 1843 he was as secure as his 
ambition could desire — and being a prominent man throughout 
the chi< f nations of the earth, he could not feel less than that 
natural anxiety of mind which is the thorny crown of greatness 



ILLNESS AND ITS CAUSE. 337 

■ — that constant watchfulness to maintain the port and bearing 
of a man whose object is above the suggestions of mere sel- 
fishness. 

Mr. Bennett was ill for some days in Scotland, the probable 
cause of which, though he did not acknowledge it to be so, was 
the outrageous attack from Mr. O'Connell's ill-guided tongue. 
The attack was a sad mortification to him under the circum- 
stances — so soon after he was married — so soon after the malice 
displayed against his amiable lady, even, in New York. Who 
would not have become ill at the reflection that every motive 
and act of one's life could be liable to distortion — or that slan- 
der should seem to have a perpetual charter, through the Press, 
or through the tongues of enraged politicians, to turn the face 
of earth into a Pandemonium 1 Men of judgment and dis- 
crimination who know Mr. Bennett as he is, and not as he 
appears before the world, will understand that his nature expe- 
rienced injury from the event at the Dublin Corn Exchange. 
He had the good sense to become calm and philosophical before 
he addressed the public, and to ascertain by observation what 
the British people thought of such an attack upon a stranger. 
In the meantime, too, reflection and opinion told him how very 
foolish it was to esteem even the Agitator's act of ill-breeding 
as worthy of more than a temporary thought. Mr. O'Connell 
was but a huge talker, and how competent a judge was he of 
the mind or character of Mr. Bennett 1 

While Mr. Bennett gained strength in one way— he obtained 
support and sympathy on all sides. Injustice always punishes 
itself. There were those in Great Britain who knew Mr. Ben- 
nett, if not personally, yet by that observation that is keener 
in its penetration than the perceptions of friendship, or acquaint- 
ance — and they, without solicitation, publicly censured the 
conduct of Mr. O'Connell, while they vindicated the stranger 
who had been so wantonly assailed. The British journalists 
behaved nobly and generously. The revenge of Mr. Bennett's 
enemies in New York, and their efforts to operate on Mr. O'Con- 
nell's mind, had been successful ; but the public attempt to insult 
Mr. Bennett failed to do any permanent mischief. He had still 

15 



33S LETTER FROM LOXDO\. 

vitality and elasticity of character enough to survive the vin- 
dictive censures of a thousand political agitators. 

Mr. Bennett wrote a letter from London on the 1st of Sep- 
tember — the day before he departed for Paris. In this letter 
he referred to 'Council's conduct, and what he supposed to be 
the cause of it. The letter will speak for itself, upon that 

point. 

London, September 1st, 1843. 

You will have seen the singularly public position in which 1 have 
been placed before the English nation, by the weak and foolish attack of 
Mr. O'Connell upon me, during my passage through Dublin. That 
attack, you will perceive, originated entirely in his extreme hatred and 
prejudice against the institutions of the Southern States — a prejudice 
which prevails here among the liberals, and so called republicans, even 
more than among the Whigs and Tories. I have been compelled to come 
out publicly in defence of myself and of the conduct of the United States 
towards certain interests in Ireland; and you will see my first letter in 
the Times of the 30th. This is only the commencement of a long con- 
test against the traducers of America, on account of the slave institutions 
of the South, and knowing the character and chivalry of the Southern 
States, I shall not spare even O'Connell, if he continues to abuse them. 

I am thus placed in this country, during my stay, in a more remark- 
able and conspicuous position than I ever expected to be, during a period, 
too, when a great crisis has begun in the land. 

The Repeal agitation is only the beginning of a long movement which 
is intended to produce great changes, if not a revolution, in England. 
The present Ministers are losing ground every day, and the great crisis 
of the age will be developed before long. Many of the false republicans 
of this land have, however, a deep jealousy and hatred of the United 
States — and why it is so, seems to be difficult to tell. But this prejudice 
is the cause of all the abuse of the social institutions of the Southern 
States, in which unfriendly business no man has been more conspicuous 
than Mr. O'Connell. 

The effect of my letter in the Times, in reply to his attacks on this 
point, has been interesting in several aspects. I have been applied to by 
many persons of high character and position, friends of the United 
States, to write a book on that country, to give a correct view of Ameri- 
can institutions, habits, and progress. From what I am told, I suppose 
it would be a very profitable business, but I have no time yet to devote 
my attention to anything out of the New York Herald. In the mean- 
time, I will think of these things, and prepare myself for the future. I 



RACHEL. 339 

have been forced by opposition into a conspicuous position, and I must 
maintain it with care and attention. 

******** 

The evils of England, Ireland, Scotland, &c, cannot be alleviated by 
any laws which may be passed. The radical errors are unequal divisions 
of property and work — the expensive habits of the higher classes and the 
extreme poverty of the lower. The nobility, from their luxurious habits, 
are as much in debt as the nation — all are mortgaged, and a reduction of 
rent or taxes seems to be equally impracticable and impossible. 

James Gordon Bennett. 

Again Mr. Bennett alludes to the subject, in brief terms, in 
the appended letter, dated — 

Paris, September 14th, 1843. 

You will see by the English papers that O'Connell and his train 
continue to rail against me and the New York Herald, in the most 
ridiculous terms. 

I shall repay them all when I get home — for I have collected materials 
on the state of England that will be interesting and amusing. I have 
been so busy in travelling and collecting facts that I have had little time 
to write, or arrange any materials for publication. Both France and 
England are in a very interesting condition, and a full view of the state 
of parties, religion, commerce, manufactures, and the progress of society, 
will require some time and leisure to arrange for the press. 

In this great metropolis I have been engaged for several days in 
visiting the public places — collecting financial information — and attending 
the theatres. 

Last evening I saw for the first time, M'lle Rachel in the tragedy of 
Cinna. She is without beauty or grace, but possesses the severest 
simplicity and the deepest energy, with a most striking deep-toned voice 
of astonishing power. She is the most unique and remarkable actress I 
ever saw — and her style more resembles that of old Edmund Kean than 
any other artist I have seen. The house was crowded from top to 
bottom. She was received with a general "hush — hush — hush," so as 
to prevent the noise and applause from impeding their relish for the 
actress's talents. The French theatre where she plays is the real 
legitimate drama. There is no music — no orchestra — no flummery — no 
nonsense at the Theatre Francais; nothing but legitimate tragedy or 
comedy. This has a singular effect upon a stranger. All the theatres 
in Paris are nearly crowded every night; there seems to be no decay of 
taste for the drama in Paris, as there is in London and New York. 

James Gordon Bennett. 



340 NEW YORK AS A HOME. 

Such, too, was Mr. Bennett's opinion in 1843, of Rachel, 
who, for the first time, is to perform before an American 
audience in 1855, and contest for the palm with the greatest 
Italian lyric actress of the time — Teresa Parodi, who visits the 
country for a second professional tour, after renewed European 
triumphs — Parodi, upon whom the mantle of Pasta has fallen ! 

On the 20th of September Mr. Bennett wrote a letter for 
the columns of the London Herald, denying promptly the 
further assertions made by Mr. O'Connell and his friends, and 
thus terminated the controversy originated by the Irish 
Agitator's unpardonable ill-temper — another lesson in the 
history of the folly and wickedness of abusing the characters 
of public men on evidence which is only apparent, and not real 
— generated by envy, malice, and uncharitableness. 

Mr. Bennett sailed from Havre in the packet ship Argo, 
Captain Anthony, on the 24th of September, and arrived in 
New York on the 21st of October. He lost no time in looking 
at the condition of the Herald, on account of which he had 
made improvements in alJ his foreign department, employing 
able correspondents in all the chief cities of Europe. His 
salutatory address was brief. He said : 

" We are again at our post, after an absence of nearly five 
months in Europe. Fresh, vigorous, renovated in health, 
strength, and spirits, we arrived in this blessed metropolis — 
this holy city of these latter days — after a delightful and 
pleasant passage of twenty-six days and a few slices of 
sunshine. 

" How delightful it is to get back to a pure atmosphere — a 
clear sky — a brilliant firmament — a place of freedom and 
security, where the soul can always soar to heaven and the 
heart leap with ecstasy upon the future ! After trying and 
testing London, Paris, and other European capitals, it is a 
settled axiom in our philosophy that New York is the only 
place worth living in — that in New York alone, out of the 
whole world, there exist real originality, genius, and enterprise, 
as a single element animating an immense mass of humanity 
as a single being. Rome rose to the empire of the old world, 



PRESIDENT TYLER'S LAST BID. 341 

by her concentrated energy, system, genius, and perseverance 
in the arts of war and conquest. New York is rising fast to a 
wider, higher, and holier empire — an intellectual empire, by 
the concentrated energy of liberty, enthusiasm and genius in 
her animated masses. 

" We have been convinced of this singular feature by com- 
parison and analysis — and we shall make it our business to 
exhibit the view in the broadest light as fast as possible. 

" The world is in a strange position. Europe and America 
are in a transition state — the one getting grey and gouty, and 
the other just beginning to cultivate a pair of whiskers ! Our 
connexions with the old world are growing more intimate 
every day. The influence of our institutions and progress are 
penetrating the secret chambers of Europe — and for the first 
time, American liberty, thought, and mind are beginning to 
alarm the antiquated classes of Europe, and to awaken the 
great masses there to feel that all men are born free and 
equal." 

The incipient struggle for the Presidency of 1845, was 
commencing about the first of November, but Mr. Bennett was 
unassured with respect to the chances of Webster, Clay, Scott, 
Calhoun, Buchanan, Cass, or Johnson — and so expressed him- 
self. The New York charter election showed the strength of 
an element brought into politics the probable effect of which 
could not be conjectured. The Native American, or American 
Republican party, cast nine thousand votes. The Tribune 
gave its warmest opposition to that body — whose tendency 
was to divide and dissolve the old corrupt political idols, the 
Gog and Magog of the country. 

In December, President Tyler's Message to Congress served 
to clear the political atmosphere. It threatened Mexico, 
intimated the value of the annexation of Texas (which he 
urged in his Special Message a year later), and was semi-pacific 
on the Oregon Boundary question, which was the dulcarnon in 
diplomacy that demanded a Pythagoras. It was the last "bid" 
of John Tyler for the Presidency. It is true he was opposed 
to "second terms" of office, but he had never been elected by 



342 morse's electric telegraph. 

the people to the chief Magistracy ! One term, under such a 
compliment from his countrymen, was deemed very proper, 
and not a relinquishment of the "one term" principle. What 
a farce is political honor ! What a vain pursuit is political 
distinction! The gambler pledges his fortune upon the 
chances which only involve his purse and his property ; — the 
politician engages in a more desperate game, in which he 
stakes character, industry, property, and all the best days of 
his life, to secure a phantom, ever before him, and seldom or 
never obtained. He is the victim of a disease so phagedenic 
that it eats into the very heart of his being, till death ends the 
painful history. 

This chapter cannot be closed more appropriately than by 
referring to the invention of Morse's Electric Telegraph, which 
was beginning to attract the attention and to excite the admira- 
tion of mankind. To day we know nothing of those 
extraordinary feats of competition which were so animating to 
the public, particularly from 1836 to 1845, when rival 
expresses were run at enormous expense, from Halifax, and 
from Washington, to New York. The columns of the news- 
papers then devoted to self-glorification for having obtained 
news one, two, three, — twelve hours in advance of the mail, 
and even of all rivals, are now appropriated, in 1855, to the 
registrations of the Magnetic Telegraph, which radiates 
intellectual light like the sun itself, or, as a network, spread 
from city to city, transmits its subtle fires, vitalized by thought, 
from one end of the country to the other, as it were uniting 
into the same day's life and sympathies, and virtually narrow- 
ing more than a million of square miles into a cognizable span. 



O'CONNELL AFFAIR EXPLAINED. 343 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



The cause of Mr. O'Connell's personal feeling towards Mr. 
Bennett was made clear in a public letter, dated May 17, 1844, 
addressed to James Harper, mayor of New York city. It was 
written and signed by Bishop Hughes, who defended his own 
political course, and censured that of the Press. He indulged 
in censures upon Mr. Bennett's conduct scarcely justified by 
his knowledge of the facts upon which he undertook to make 
out a case. In this letter, Bishop Hughes said he had had an 
interview with Mr. O'Oonnell in 1840, and the Liberator had 
expressed his sorrow that his wife's character had been attacked, 
as he asserted, in the Herald. 

Mr. Bennett denied that he had ever made any personal 
allusions to Mr. O'Connell's wife, but stated that the paragraph 
against O'Oonnell himself which appeared in his journal, Octo- 
ber 12, 1838, was written, without his knowledge, by a person 
in the editorial department. He said, too, that he remonstrated 
severely with his assistant for taking such liberties with cha- 
racter — thus showing how pained he was to find his journal 
going beyond the bounds of good sense. 

Indeed, in order to remove the impression which the para- 
graph might make, Mr. Bennett, on the 20th of October, wrote 
a long and complimentary article on Mr. O'Connell, which 
would satisfy any reasonable mind that he himself had no per- 
sonal animosity towards the Irish orator. 

All the mischief, therefore, was caused by the indiscretion 
of a party in the back-ground, who, having no responsibility 
before the public, could indulge in his hostility without any fear 
beyond that of losing his position as a sub-editor. 



344 FURTHER EXPLANATIONS. 

Mr. Bennett having published the whole history of the affair, 
conclusively showing that he was not the author of the few 
harsh lines which caused the ill-feeling on the part of Mr. 
O'Connell, repelled the charge of his distinguished assailant ; 
and it must he allowed that every word is justified by the facts 
in the case — a case that need not he more fully made known. 
It is sufficient to believe that the whole trouble arose from 
enemies handling one of those incidents which are more easily 
regretted than avoided. Mr. Bennett said, 

" The circumstance of the publication, without our know- 
ledge, faded altogether from our recollection, and we never 
thought of it, until it was brought up in the present controversy. 
If Mr. O'Connell really did make the statement imputed to him 
by Bishop Hughes, in reference to us, it was made under an 
altogether erroneous impression. Up to the period when the 
attacks of Mr. O'Connell on the institutions of this country 
became so gross, and violent, and malignant, that even friend- 
ship could not palliate or excuse them, we thought, and spoke, 
and wrote of him, with the highest esteem and regard. This is 
at once established by reference to our columns. We never 
attacked him — we never breathed a syllable against his 
lady. 

" We have given a full explanation of the whole origin and 
ground-work of this accusation, and we now cast back in the 
teeth of all — Bishops, editors, papers — all who have assailed us 
with the slanderous accusation of having attacked Mrs. O'Con- 
nell in any shape or form. 

" We repudiate it with the utmost indignation, from the very 
bottom of our soul. We have given a full explanation — one 
which must and will satisfy every honorable mind — of the 
manner in which the offensive remarks, which so much dis- 
tressed us, appeared in our columns. We appeal with the 
utmost confidence to our columns for proof of our uniform 
good feeling towards O'Connell, up to the period when his 
assaults on our institutions became intolerable, and when the 
introduction into the land of that fell spirit of civil discord and 
agitation, called O'Connellism, threatened us with wide-spread 



THE STOCKTON GUN. 345 

disaster. And even after his brutal conduct towards us in Dub- 
lin, he was still treated with respect by us." 

This is true. Mr. Bennett's notices of Mr. O'Connell's pub- 
lic career were generous. His faults were passed over lightly 
enough. Even his' sincerity was not disputed ; and when Mr. 
O'Oonnell abandoned Repeal for the " federative system " he 
was respected by Mr. Bennett's journal. In fact, Mr. Bennett 
knew very well that Mr. O'Oonnell was not so much to blame 
as were those who had taken pains to prejudice his mind 
against the New York Herald — and he pardoned the public 
insult which O'Oonnell attempted to give at the Oorn Exchange. 

Daniel O'Oonnell could gain nothing by his course against 
Mr. Bennett, and the latter could not be injured by anything 
growing out of so unfortunate an affair as has been recorded. 
Journalists may profit by the lesson, however, and perceiving 
how great a fire " a little spark kindleth " may avoid incon- 
siderate acts to injure others by allowing the heat of politics to 
dry up those noble emotions which belong to generous foes. 

On the 28th of February a terrible catastrophe attended the 
excursion of the Princeton, steamer, Captain Stockton, who 
intended to exhibit the power of a great gun invented by him. 
A large party of gentlemen from Washington were on board 
the vessel, in the Potomac. Mr. Upshur, Secretary of State, 
Mr. Gilmer, Secretary of the Navy, Commodore Kennon, and 
Virgil Maxcy, were standing near the gun, and were imme- 
diately killed by its explosion. Other distinguished persons 
were severely wounded. The event created, as may be sup- 
posed, the utmost public sorrow. 

The mournful result so near the seat of the Federal govern- 
ment, and at a time when the President was troubled to 
arrange a Cabinet, created a more than common anxiety in the 
public mind ; and the Press for a time conducted itself with 
more moderation and refinement than had been customary 
when Cabinets were organized, in deference to the feelings 
excited by the unfortunate occurrence. Like all other lessons 
to the pride and folly of man, however, the passions of self- 
interest soon held their accustomed sway, and the people forgo* 

15* 



346 NATIVE AMERICAN PARTISANS. 

the unexpected rebuke of the painful circumstance, in the 
fierce contest of political strife. 

Party leaders arrayed themselves on all sides to animate the 
people for the approaching elections. In Philadelphia, riots 
grew out of the inflamed passions of the multitude, and scenes 
of bloodshed and violence disgraced that always beautiful, and 
usually peaceful city. For several weeks the citizens were 
kept in constant alarm. The Native American partisans were 
in conflict with the foreign population — particularly with the 
Catholics, whose patriotism was doubted — but whose power 
never can be feared, or become dangerous, while the majority 
have the ability to make the laws. Yet while political agita- 
tion raged, the suggestions of prudence and common sense 
were unheeded. Popular clamor is seldom based upon sound 
judgment. 

The view taken by Mr. Bennett of the agency of Bishop 
Hughes in promoting the growth of public dissensions, will 
strike every candid mind as philosophically correct. 

" The conduct of the Bishop in 1841 gave the Irish a pre- 
ponderance in 1842, which created in its turn a re-action in the 
American mind in 1843, resulting in the organization of the 
Native American party last Spring, and whose operations we 
have all seen. But all these movements, here as well as in 
Philadelphia, can be traced with the accuracy of mathematical 
calculation, back to Bishop Hughes's first entrance into Carroll 
Hall as a political agitator, and the motives which- impelled the 
Bishop then can be guessed at now with a good deal of cer- 
tainty. He was the first dignitary of the Catholic Church, in 
this free and happy land, that ever attempted such a movement, 
and we trust that he may be the last of the same faith that may 
ever thus disgrace his holy calling. In all these movements he 
has most wofully mistaken his duties. He has most wofully 
mistaken his position in this city, in this country, and in this 
age. He has forgotten that he lives in a land of freedom and 
universal toleration, in a republic of intelligent men, and in the 
nineteenth century. 

" Coming fresh from the seclusion of his cloister, he imagined 



A VERY DANGEROUS MAN. 347 

when lie became a Bishop, that lie was living in the fourth or 
fourteenth century. His policy would, indeed, have been in 
keeping with the spirit of those dark ages. It is precisely 
similar to that conduct by which the priesthood destroyed the 
Roman Empire — 'decided who should wear the purple, and 
finally delivered that old heroic nation into the hands of the 
Northern barbarians. It is precisely similar to thac interference 
of the hierarchy in political affairs which overwhelmed the 
Italian republics of the Middle Ages with irreparable ruin. It 
is precisely similar to that conduct which lighted up the fires in 
Smithfield and the Grrass-market. It is precisely similar to that 
course of policy which whitened the valleys of Piedmont with 
the bones of thousands slaughtered in civil war. It is precisely 
similar to that policy which has torn and distracted unhappy 
Spain. It is, in fact, the same accursed interference of eccle- 
siastics with the affairs of State, which has, in all ages, brought 
such disgrace on Christianity, and crushed the liberties of man- 
kind. Need we say that it is utterly at variance with the 
precepts of Christ and the spirit of his religion 1 No. We all 
know that it is in open and blasphemous defiance of the prin- 
ciples of Him who came to proclaim universal peace and good- 
will, as they were developed in his sermons on the mountains 
of Judea and on the shores of Galilee." 

Mr. Bennett favored the American Republican party in New 
York, because he perceived the growing disposition in the two 
dominant leading parties to sell principles, and even the best 
rights of citizenship, to obtain what has been thought too much 
of, the Catholic vote. It had been his object, as a good citi- 
zen, interested to secure the welfare of all as Americans, to 
break up an odious distinction, particularly as it was based 
upon the creeds of a religious system. It was this that pro- 
voked the letter of Bishop Hughes to Mayor Harper, for the 
Herald and Mr. Bennett, in the natural course of supposition, 
must be at the bottom of every cause of complaint which special 
thinkers chose to make. 

Bishop Hughes had pronounced Mr. Bennett " a very dan- 
gerous man," and though Mr. Bennett could have exchanged 



348 DEPLORABLE EXTENT OF POWER. 

the compliment, yet he did not, hut quietly attended to his 
usual duties, regardless of all such charges, "beyond re-pro- 
ducing them in the Herald, so that his readers might know how 
very important he was in the eyes both of the Church, the 
Press, and the State. 

Among several good-natured paragraphs, demonstrative of 
his cool philosophy in hearing the "fate of place" and the 
" rough brake" that journalists must go through, a couple may 
he appended, for they show that there were other citizens, 
besides the Bishop, crying out complainingly. Benjamin 
Franklin was accused of being the author of the Lord George 
Gordon Riots in London — Mr. Bennett could not be surprised 
at finding Wentworths in Dublin. 

" The Dublin Freeman's Journal — the organ of the Repealers 
— has a very funny article about the Philadelphia riots, which 
it attributes to that 'most dangerous man in the country,' 
James Gordon Bennett ! It is really astonishing how rapidly 
the evidences of our tremendous power accumulate on all 
hands. If American stocks go up, what has occasioned their 
elevation 1 Why, James Gordon Bennett. If American stocks 
go down, who depresses them 1 James Gordon Bennett. Do 
the people of the United States get too voluminous for their 
small clothes, and grasp another thousand square miles of 
territory, who spurs them on ? James Gordon Bennett. Has 
a feeling of bitter hostility to England sprung up, who is the 
wicked wretch that inflames it 1 Why, James Gordon Bennett. 
And now that the people of Philadelphia are devouring one 
another, who has set them on ? Of course, this same James 
Gordon Bennett, ' the large circulation of whose paper, and his 
unscrupulousness in the use of it, has given him such a 
deplorable extent of power !' 

" Really it is quite too overpowering in this hot weather to 
read the three or four columns which the Freeman's Journal 
has devoted to our denunciation. It accuses us of all sorts of 
forgeries and fabrications, and in all probability, by the next 
arrival, we will be favored with the discovery that we fabricated 
the late Bull of his Holiness the Pope. This is not at all 



PROTECTION OF CHARACTER. 349 

unlikely. There's no knowing what uses this ' most dangerous 
man' may make of his ' deplorable extent of power.' What 
with his ' unparalleled boldness,' and ' diabolical malignity,' to 
use the impressive language of the Repeal organ, he may, by 
and by, play at nine-pins with the crowned heads of Christen- 
dom, using his Holiness as the knock-down projectile, and 
Dan. O'Connell as the * set-em-up-again-my-boy.' " 

He who knows the most evil of a man may pride himself on 
having a large knowledge of human nature, but is usually an 
ignoramus, and so one would think of each of Mr. Bennett's 
assailants. How seldom did any man discover the motives 
which guided his varied course as a journalist, and how few of 
those editors who observed his acts perceived the downright 
good feeling and charity in his nature. That he often forgave 
men for their malevolence, even in the very heat of battle, and 
when he could have crushed them to the earth, is well known 
to hundreds of persons, and by every attentive reader of his 
journal. 

The attacks which he made on public individuals at times, 
though sometimes hasty and rash, were made usually with far 
more cause than has been suspected. Yet it is not well to give 
undue prominence to controversies of a personal nature. The 
citation of certain cases has been requisite to "point a moral," 
rather than to "adorn a tale;" for what compensation can it be 
to a generous or philanthropic mind, to wound the living by 
forgotten memories, or to disturb the ashes of the dead even 
with the breath of reproach, even if a gaping and curious world 
were to take delight in the reckless and unhallowed ceremony ? 

No ! It is a richer boon than wealth, than admiration, than 
popular applause, even at the cost of transitory fame, to hold 
character above the iron grasp of passion, to rescue virtues 
from the malevolence of cunning, to preserve merits of heart 
and mind from the desecration that is the growth of circum- 
stances, so that an unprejudiced age, or generation, may make 
a proper estimate of the powers of industry, talent, and 
genius. A few journalists have stood boldly forth to sustain 
Mr. Bennett in his surprising and useful labors, and they merit 



350 SALE OF EDITORIAL SPACE. 

praise for their candor and their judgment. They have done 
much to sustain one in the sea of passion where too many 
would have rejoiced to wrench even the last plank from under 
him, and consign him to oblivion. 

Even in 1844 the supposed interests of the Press and of 
Party raged against him as strongly as ever. He threw up 
the broad shield of his independence before him, and receiving 
the blows which rebounded with strange resilience, maintained 
his ground like the giant in the Enchanted Castle, till his foes 
were prostrated at his feet, and some of them even begged for 
bread. 

The Press itself combined to obtain news in advance of Mr. 
Bennett. Combination had little power. The indomitable 
energy — the constant study to excel and prosper, while it 
instructed other journalists, brought its reward in the shape of 
unexampled appreciation. Even enemies, or what is a better 
term, his competitors acknowledged that his name had been 
abused. In one case, a journalist defended him strongly, 
though from the degrading habit of political vilification, he 
again and again recurred to his ancient and unjust prejudices. 
A war for a life-time would be the consequence of narrating 
all that was done by his rivals — but, if it were a battle for 
an eternity, it should be said that Mr. Bennett was usually in 
the right, and they were infamously, wantonly, and willingly 
wrong. Men who habitually sold their editorial columns for 
money, and continued to do so down to 1850, and even later, 
to 1855, prated of the bargain and sale of the Herald when 
they knew it did not sell " puffs," or any part of the paper 
which the ordinary reader could not know was devoted to 
advertisements. 

Few daily journals persist in the course of permitting agents 
and advertisers to occupy editorial space at a fixed rate. Such 
as do, cannot long survive — for no journal can hold a prominent 
position that does not stand higher than the counter where its 
advertisements are received. All the talent in the country 
could not save such a paper from annihilation as a popular, and 
at the same time influential journal. Yet there was once a fair 



MONEY ARTICLES. 3ol 

plea for that system. It had been sanctioned by iustom. It 
was proper and just under all the circumstances. The Herald 
reformed the plan, however — and since it undertook to make 
the change, other journals have followed its judicious example 
— giving a tone to their columns which is altogether superior to 
what it was a few years ago. 

Advertisements now are not placed in the editorial columns of 
the leading daily journals, and only, with one or two exceptions, 
where they may be taken for editorial opinions. The conse- 
quence is that the people are becoming more respectful and 
attentive to journalists — and they are heeded as men who have 
much to say, and who say it, not for the price that is paid for 
it, but for the truth's sake. In this way, art in all its forms is 
encouraged, and the artist and the author is in a fair way of 
receiving that encouragement which is the true stimulus of 
talent and genius. 

A controversy arose in the Spring of this year on the author- 
ship of the Money Articles in the Herald — a gentleman who 
once had been engaged to take the work of that department 
having claimed the merit of writing them. It is not necessary 
to enter into a very full history of the matter — but as Mr. Ben- 
nett superintended always all departments of his journal, it is 
well to put some of the evidence on record, which may be done 
in the language of Mr. Bennett. 

" It is well known to the commercial community, that the 
first reports of the money market of Wall Street, attempted by 
the newspaper press of this country, were those which made 
their appearance in the New York Herald, on its establishment 
in the year 1835. The importance and interest of those reports 
kept pace with the increasing ardor for speculation, and the 
progressive augmentation of the trade, commercial activity, and 
prosperity of the country, and with the other extraordinary 
events which succeeded in 1836-37-38. During all that period 
of time, or the greater portion of it, the reports of the New York 
Herald were the only ones published in this country, or 
which had been attempted. They commanded the universal 
attention of the newspaper Press, and of the commercial 



352 PERSONAL INDUSTRY. 

community throughout this country, and in European capi- 
tals. 

" We had prepared ourselves to introduce this new feature 
into the management of a daily newspaper by a devotion of 
nearly twelve or fifteen years to the subject of political econo- 
my — the banking system, and commercial affairs generally. 
During that period we had collected every fact and every 
document bearing upon the commercial interests and the agri- 
cultural affairs of this country ; and the extent of the informa- 
tion and the accuracy of the research which these commercial 
reports indicated, were drawn altogether from our own re- 
sources." 

Frederic Hudson and Edward W. Hudson, both in the edi- 
torial department of the Herald, were able to avouch for this, 
and to make the claims of any temporary writer of little value. 
The fact was as stated, and it is quite well known that while 
in London and Paris, both on his first and second visits, Mr. 
Bennett received from the best statists in that country import- 
ant commercial publications, it being well understood that he 
was in search of everything connected with trade and finance. 
Mr. Macgregor presented him a set of his admirable works on 
the trade of nations, containing commercial treaties and other 
waluable information. 

The object of several journals was to deprive Mr. Bennett 
of the credit of preparing these articles, thereby to diminish his 
reputation as a journalist in the harness, as one tugging con- 
stantly at the oar. In this a great mistake was made, for 
probably no man has worked harder from day to day and year 
to year on so great a variety of topics as the Editor of the 
Herald. This will be made apparent hereafter, even though 
the reader may suspect already that such is the fact. 

Other topics which in the year 1844 were prominent received 
the attention they merited. All political questions were discussed 
with zeal and energy, and every department of the Herald was 
sustained with spirit and vigor. The reports were, as usual, full 
and comprehensive, and the expenses incurred in obtaining the 
latest intelligence were little thought of when compared with 



ECCLESIASTICAL TRIALS. 353 

the importance of the priority of publication. Polly Bodine's 
trial for a murder alleged to have been committed by her at 
Staten Island, was elaborately reported — and the incidents 
connected with the death, in June, of Joe Smith, the founder 
of Mormonism — the history of the Italian Opera with Pico and 
Sanquirico — the artistic efforts of Vieuxtemps, of Ole Bull, of 
Macready and of Anderson — and notices of many other subjects 
found appropriate places. 

Upon the Onderdonk trial before an extra-judicial, ecclesias- 
tical tribunal, which is wholly in opposition to the spirit and 
letter of republican laws, Mr. Bennett took broad ground, 
attributing the hostility displayed during that affair to the 
growth of Puseyite views, which, it will be remembered, first 
attracted attention at the time of the publication of the Oxford 
Tracts in 1839. The Ecclesiastical Trial of Rev. J. H. Fair- 
child was another instance in which a case was taken from the 
established courts of law. As far as years of strife have proved 
anything it seems that some personal animosity, rather than 
Christian charity, has ruled in the various investigations con- 
nected with this affair. In various shapes the subject has been 
before the people of New England for ten years past. 

This year was distinguished, also, for the introduction into 
the United States of the Polka as a fashionable dance, and 
also for the election of James K. Polk as the President of the 
republic. Mr. Bennett did full justice to both subjects, for his 
versatile taste permitted him to dwell on the probable influence 
of the one upon social life, and of the effect of the other upon 
the political condition of the country. 

There were several daily journals in New York, in 1844, 
which soon disappeared from public view. Among these were 
the Aurora, the Morning News, the Plebeian, the Republic, 
and others of less importance. Men who had a few thousand 
dollars to spare, or politicians who desired to possess an 
" organ," occasionally indulged in the folly of endeavoring U 
compete with the established journals — but such attempts could 
terminate scarcely otherwise than in failure, particularly as 
they were conducted with too slight knowledge of the demands 



354 THE EMPIRE CLUB. 

of the public, or with too limited means to secure popu- 
larity. A capital of one or two hundred thousand dollars 
is necessary, at the present time to bring a new daily journal 
into active competition with the Press ; and all the capital in 
Wall street will not sustain any journal that does not observe 
certain principles well known to experienced journalists. The 
Daily Times, within two or three years, has made a decided 
position for itself in the public mind by having a combination 
of talent, labor, and capital nearly equal to that of any of its 
neighbors, but it furnishes the only instance of success since 
the establishment of the Tribune, the daily circulation of 
which it rivals. 

The Empire Club was formed during this year. The adver- 
tisement calling the first meeting, appeared in the Herald 
on the 19th of July, and was signed by John S. Austin, who 
was second officer of the " Empire Guard," of which Isaiah 
Rynders was captain — a company formed of persons, of all 
parties, to defend the old custom of celebrating the Fourth of 
July with fire-crackers and gunpowder, and in opposition to 
the proclamation of Mayor Harper, which was made during 
that summer. 

This Empire Club has been very conspicuous in elections 
ever since, and has been engaged in many scenes connected 
with political trickery and gambling. It originally numbered 
among its members some of the most notorious prize-fighters 
and their kindred spirits, known to the city of New York. It is 
an organization that is ready to indulge in physical force when- 
ever there appears to the members to be a demand for prompt 
and decisive action. In the ten years of its existence it has 
enrolled a large number of persons, and is supposed to have a 
great political influence — but any citizen may doubt this, if he 
is disposed. Certainly, the presence of the Club has been 
beneficial in many instances, for the members do not rush 
hastily into any extravagant demonstration of their power. 

While the general election for the Presidency was going on, 
in the first season of its organization, the Empire Club was 
active in the service of the democratic party. It had thirty 



PRESERVATION OF THE PEACE. 355 

three parades, and went to Albany, Jamaica, Keyport, Brook- 
lyn, Hoboken, Tarrytown, and Westchester. A day or two 
before the election they went by invitation to the Mayor's 
office, and were there told that twenty-fiye hnndred dollars 
were ready to be divided among them, if they would accept 
the warrants of a Marshal, and preserve the peace in the Sixth 
Ward. Only one man accepted his proportion, one hundred 
and twenty -five dollars; the remainder returned to their 
quarters. There was no disturbance, however, on the day of 
election, the good sense of the Club having operated favora- 
bly to prevent any public disturbance. 

In 1844, the daily circulation of the Herald amounted 
to nearly twenty thousand copies. Mr. Bennett closed the 
year by saying that it was " this liberal, generous, and magna- 
nimous patronage and approbation — substantial patronage — of 
the public which has enabled us to overcome so many difficul- 
ties, and so much bitter and vulgar opposition, and which now, 
with energies unimpaired, and means greater than ever, will 
enable us to surpass any newspaper that ever attempted to 
enlighten the public mind in this hemisphere." 



356 nature's own livery. 



CHAPTER XXV 



Modern biography is usually very minute with respect to 
the trivial habits of heroes. It descends to descriptions of the 
shapes of hats and coats, of the style of boots and of other 
external signs of character. This is despicable, where the 
outward peculiarities do not form the preponderating features 
of a man, for the true character is masked rather than unveiled 
by such elaborate narrations. 

The disciples of Daguerre, and the engravers of the day — 
the Gurneys, Roots, Whipples, and Lawrences among the 
former ; the Cheneys, Buttres, and Sartains among the latter, 
are quite equal to making all necessary pictures of the external 
man, and with but little aid from authors. The true biogra- 
pher has a higher task to perform. His mind must be the 
camera that, by the most delicate mental processes, will pro- 
duce a life-like embodiment of the soul of his subject, so that 
he may permanently fasten it upon the pages of his work, 
where it may be recognised as a faithful transcript of the most 
minute lineaments of the inner man, which is all that any 
human being can leave for the criticism or admiration of pos- 
terity. 

Mr. Bennett used to shave closely, but latterly, in conse- 
quence of a bronchial difficulty, wears whiskers. He has not 
followed the fashion which was introduced at the time when 
the country was at war with Mexico, or adopted the advice of 
that serenes.t of philosophers and most remarkable phenomenon 
of phenomenal men — Andrew Jackson Davis, who maintains 
that the beard is nature's own livery for every male descend- 
ant of Adam. 



ANTI-RENTISM. 357 

The " shave" used to be a part of the morning duties in the 
editorial office, and was effected by the handiwork of Jem 
Grant, now elevated from the tonsorial chair to some seat of 
honor among the dignitaries of California. 

" Why is Bennett," propounded Jem Grant with a very 
sober, philosophical look, " why, like one of my razors V 

" I can't tell," said the Hon. John Snooks, Esq. 

"Do you give it up ?" asked Jem. 

" I do," replied Snooks. 

" Then," said Jem, " this is the why and wherefore — after 
he's out of one scrape, he gets into another !" 

This was true. Holding the position of an independent 
journalist, he was liable to attacks from all quarters at one 
time or another. He was accused of selling his journal to the 
democrats in 1844 — subsequently to Mayor Harper of the 
Native American party — and in 1845 to the Whigs ! 

Scrapes were a necessary consequence of such libels on his 
course, which was a mystery to men who called it a " sticking 
to principles," to perpetrate any wrong, however foul it might 
be, that a party approved or sustained. Hence in 1845 the 
war of Journalism was kept up by the political editors, and 
Mr. Bennett was a prominent hero in the strife. 

Anti-rentism was rampant in this year. The impulsive, 
progressive spirit of the Tribune hurled it into that strange 
vortex of infatuation, because it had become intoxicated with 
the intellectual, fascinating, and delicious draughts from the 
fountain of Fourier's philosophy, and was prepared to hope 
and even to anticipate that the world was unselfish enough to 
attempt a realization of the ideal government of one of the 
most gifted of men. The origin of the Anti-rent war may be 
traced to the lectures of Frances Wright, in 1828 and 1829. 

Thomas Skidmore was a leading political reformer in New 
York in 1829. He was a member of the Adams Committee 
in 1S28, during the conte^; between the friends of Jackson 
and Adams, and attempted then to introduce a series of radical 
resolutions, but without success. 

In the Spring of 1829, he called a public meeting, and 



358 PHILOSOPHY AND PELF. 

assisted by a number of working men made an array of mem- 
bers quite formidable. A declaration of opinions and princi- 
ples was issued. The political doctrines of Frances Wright 
shone conspicuously through these, and anti-bankism and anti- 
rentism, land monopolies, and similar subjects, were prominent 
ones upon which the leaders of this movement proposed to 
act. 

This germ grew to an enormous size in a short time, and it 
was necessary for the politicians of the two old parties to 
notice its existence. The democrats coalesced with the faction. 
They excited the Anti-bank war, and that appeased the mal- 
contents, for their principles were carried out in the policy of 
President Jackson's administration, which interfered so per- 
sistently with the financial organization of the country. 

The tenants under the large proprietors of land in Delaware, 
Columbia, and other counties of New York State, at the same 
time, gained courage by the political importance given to the 
agitation both by the Whigs and Democrats, who were seek- 
ing to obtain votes, and thus the doctrines at first proclaimed 
by Frances Wright, and subsequently incorporated upon the 
working-men's platform, produced the scenes known in the 
Anti-rent war — scenes of bloodshed, social disturbance, and of 
opposition to the laws. 

All this history, with its concomitant circumstances, was 
familiar to Mr. Bennett's memory, for he had been connected 
intimately with the Press, as was shown many pages back, 
during the whole period from the delivery of the brilliant and 
strong lectures of Frances Wright to the formation of the 
Working-men's party, and the several organizations which 
resulted from that political movement. The opposition to the 
philosophy of radicalism, or agrarianism, was everywhere as 
intense as it could be towards doctrines which, from their very 
impracticable character, could not be realized in active, work- 
day life. 

Mr. Bennett knew well enough tiiat all such philosophy is 
with difficulty engrafted on a money-governed race. He was 
not opposed to some of the leading principles of associative 



PHILOSOPHERS OF FOURIERISM. 359 

industry, but he doubted that the time had come for the intro- 
duction of such plans into society. The history of ages did 
not warrant it. The history of the twenty preceding years 
even did not encourage the shadow of the hope. Frances 
Wright, in whose welfare and that of her sister, General Lafay- 
ette took much interest, aiding them in their arrangements to 
visit this country, about the time of his celebrated visit — com- 
menced in 1827 her agitation of radical politics in the chief 
cities of the United States, and Mr. Bennett had watched her 
course and that of her partisans with no ordinary scrutiny. 
The results showed the folly of attempting any re-organization 
of society on such a basis as mere intellect can suggest. Re- 
ligious enthusiasm may produce sudden revolutions — a great 
attack upon the interests of the mass of commercial men may 
overturn with rapidity the ruling conditions of society, but 
appeals to the intellect ever have failed, and ever must fail, 
to produce any spontaneous generic organization opposed to 
the existing growth of things. So true is this, that it seems 
impossible to establish any new system for the encouragement 
even of art and of literature — a task which would appear to be 
not very difficult, particularly as a radical change would not 
interfere with the pecuniary prosperity of society, and would 
benefit all persons who devote their lives to mental pur- 
suits. 

The Herald had the strong side, therefore, in the Anti-rent 
war, and the more finished rhetoric and serious earnestness of 
the Tribune could not compete with its neighbor's old fashion- 
ed conservatism. On the general philosophy of the Tribune, 
Mr. Bennett once expressed himself in these terms : 

" These new philosophers, who arrogate to themselves 
superior intelligence and fuller conceptions of truth, and dis- 
cover such excessive fretfulness and bad temper, whenever 
the tendency of their doctrines is pointed out, no doubt mean 
well. We are willing to admit that they desire to see virtue 
prevailing and vice driven away abashed from society. They 
wish well to humanity ; but all their absurd theories, all their 
erroneous reasonings, all their disorganizing schemes, are the 



360 BEAUTY OF THE WORLD. 

result of an entirely mistaken view of human nature and 
human society. 

" They are eternally declaiming about the universal misery 
and crime which exist on all hands. Everything is wrong in 
their eyes. Everybody is suffering. The world is in their 
eyes one vast lazar-house. Now, all the misery, and suffering, 
and corruption, exists only in their own diseased imaginations. 
They regard everything with a jaundiced eye. Their own 
feelings are morbid. They are oppressed with a moral night- 
mare. They can only see the dark side of the picture. Like 
the owl in the ruined tower, who, drooping his fringed eye- 
lids, hoots at the morning sunshine, they refuse to come out 
into the open day, and wrapped in darkness, call out when 
told of the sun in the heavens, where is it 1 

" But the world of these gloomy enthusiasts has no existence 
in reality. The great mass of mankind, living in civilized 
society, are happy. The suffering and misery are only excep- 
tions to the general condition. The world is an excellent 
world. It is a happy world. It is clothed with beauty. The 
sky is beautiful. The mountains and the vales are beautiful. 
The wood and winding rivers are beautiful. The trees are 
beautiful. The very wilderness is beautiful. The mute crea- 
tion is beautiful and happy. Man is happy. From universal 
Nature there is constantly ascending a hymn of praise to the 
Great Creator. The hills resound with gladness, and the 
fertile plains break forth into singing. The great heart of 
human nature, too, pulsates with happiness. It is true, vice, 
and misery, and suffering are to be met with in society — but 
why ? 

" Not because the organization of society is radically wrong, 
but because the laws of society are violated. The system of 
Christian civilization and Christian society and morals, given to 
the world by Jesus of Nazareth, is perfect. It is entirely 
adapted to the condition of humanity. Adherence to it must 
necessarily make man happy on earth ; and when these new 
philosophers offer us their system in exchange — a system 
founded on gloomy, distorted, and morbid views of human 



INAUGURATION OF MR. POLK. 361 

nature — they act like the wicked man in the Scripture, who, 
when asked for bread, would give the starving applicant a 
stone." 

Thus the influence of the Tribune in politics was abridged 
by its course upon the topics which were then exciting the 
social and literary world — let men think what they will of its 
talent and worth. 

Hence there was little difficulty, when all the circumstances 
of the period were examined, in prognosticating the defeat of ' 
Henry Clay. The friends of that great statesman were divid- 
ed among themselves. There were dissensions in the Whig 
camp, which operated unfavorably upon the popular interests, 
and portended a general striking of tents, and an ignoble 
retreat from the field. 

Mr. Bennett was on the popular side, and ably supported 
his journal by the course which he pursued, leaving the im- 
pression on the political mind that he was a good judge and 
calculator of political signs. This consequently aided the 
reputation of the Herald, and it was to the many successes of 
a similar kind that the historian must attribute the rapid rise 
of the Herald to a popular and permanent estimation. 

The inauguration of James K. Polk as President was 
followed by political and diplomatic action that greatly dis- 
tinguished the first year of his Presidential term of office. In 
the preceding summer, important official correspondence had 
been carried on with regard to the annexation of the Republic 
of Texas to the United States. Indeed the election of Mr. 
Polk decided that the people were in favor of such a move- 
ment, and the country was preparing for the important events 
which it seemed possible might spring out of that issue. 

Mr. Bennett did not violently antagonize — but weighed 
every subject merely as a journalist, always careful to be a 
reformer no faster than he could find the people reforming with 
him. Where it was evident that a great measure would be 
beneficial, he urged its adoption in calm, strong language, that 
carried weight with it— where one of doubtful expediency was 
suggested, he laughed at the imbecility that proposed it. In 

16 



362 PENNSYLVANIA ADMONISHED. 

this way, lie ever gained ground for his journal, and brought 
not only around it, but into its columns, the leading minds in 
commerce, literature, and politics. Men could not ignore such 
an engine. It was too important to be overlooked — and even 
those who were so ignorant as to fear any association with a 
gentleman who was proscribed by the bad temper of his class, 
were happy to have the influence of so important a newspaper 
directed in their own favor, or for that of their friend. 

Important negotiations were completed and a treaty made 
with China in 1845. Commodore Kearney was instrumental 
in preparing the way for this important result to American 
commerce. The Herald gave this gentleman due credit for 
his exertions, and for some time published valuable articles 
upon the character of the Chinese merchants, and kindred 
topics of public interest. 

In the early part of the summer the "War fever broke out on 
the Oregon question with more than ordinary spirit. Philadel- 
phia was very active on the subject, but the condition in which 
Pennsylvania stood at that time made the agitation there 
appear rather ridiculous. 

For those who may suppose that Mr. Bennett lacked patriot- 
ism or bravery, because he protected the popularity of his 
journal, it is well to consider whether or not he feared to speak 
boldly where any great moral principle was kernelled in the 
subject. It was not so. Never did he hesitate to speak openly 
and on the side of national honor, probity, and justice. A sin 
gle paragraph on the War fever in Pennsylvania will serve to 
settle the question. 

" The conduct of the statesmen and politicians there ha? 
fuHy equalled our expectations. With boundless riches, and 
great means of wealth, that State Has given the disgraceful 
example of repudiating her honest debts, and delaying the pay- 
ment of the interest under the plea of paltry excuses. No 
man, or set of men, in the community can have the true feeling 
of patriotism, or should be allowed to lick John Bull, unless 
x hey have honesty enough to pay their debts and rid their con- 
sciences of such a burden. It is impossible for Philadelphia to 



THE MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH. 363 

get up a patriotic meeting, and convince England and the 
world that they can whip John Bull, until they pay their debts. 
Church-burners, rioters, repudiators, are not the stuff of which 
true patriotism can be formed, or brave men manufactured. 
Before the people of that community can take a proper position 
on the Oregon question they are first to pay the interest on 
their State debt punctually, and to the uttermost farthing — 
they must build up the churches of the living God which the 
mob so disgracefully burned down, some two years ago, in a 
paroxysm of unrestrained madness. When they do that — 
when they purge their consciences from these sins, they then 
will be able to hold meetings to protect the country, and walk 
in the same shoes in which their venerated ancestors did in 
1776 — and will furthermore be permitted to have a hand in 
the exquisite luxury of giving the old British race of the old 
world one of the soundest drubbings they have had for the last 
thousand years." 

The success of the Magnetic Telegraph between Washing - 
ton and Baltimore, and of several lines in France and Great 
Britain, early in the Spring, had caused a desire for lines 
between Boston and New York, and Philadelphia and New 
York, and in fact, much public spirit was displayed towards 
the enterprise — not, however, till a complete demonstration of 
the plan and of its feasibility was made, as in the case of 
steamboats and of railroads. 

Mr. Bennett alluded to the subject in terms which to a great 
extent experience has justified. He said — 

" The Telegraph may not affect Magazine literature, or those 
newspapers which have some peculiar characteristic ; but the 
mere newspapers — the circulators of intelligence merely — must 
submit to destiny, and go out of existence. That Journalism, 
however, which possesses intellect, mind, and originality, will 
not suffer. Its sphere of action will be widened. It will be 
more influential than ever. The public mind will be stimulated 
to greater activity by the rapid circulation of news. The swift 
communication of tidings of great events, will awake in the 
masses of the community still keener interest in public affairs. 



364 ENTHUSIASM. 

Thus the intellectual, philosophic, and original journalist will 
have a greater, a more excited, and more thoughtful audience 
than ever. 

" The revolutions and changes which this instrumentality is 
destined to effect throughout society, cannot now at all be 
realized. Speculation itself, in the very wildness of its con- 
jectures, may fall far short of the mighty results that are 
thus to be produced. One thing, however, is certain. This 
means of communication will have a prodigious, cohesive, and 
conservative influence on the republic. No better bond of 
union for a great confederacy of states could have been devised. 
Steam has been regarded, and very properly so, as a most 
powerful means of preserving the unity, and augmenting the 
strength of a great nation, by securing a rapid inter-communi- 
cation between its different cities and communities ; but the 
agency of steam is far inferior in this respect to the Magnetic 
Telegraph, which communicates with the rapidity of lightning 
from one point to another. The whole nation is impressed 
with the same idea at the same moment. One feeling and one 
impulse are thus created and maintained from the centre of the 
land to its uttermost extremities. 

" In the hands of government — controlled by the people — 
and conducted on a large scale with energy and success, this 
agency will be productive of the most extraordinary effects on 
society, government, commerce, and the progress of civiliza- 
tion ; but we cannot predict its results. When we look at it, 
we almost feel as if we were gazing on the mysterious garni- 
ture of the skies — trying to fathom infinite space, or groping 
our way into the field of eternity." 

In this foreshadowing of the future importance of the Mag- 
netic Telegraph, Mr. Bennett displayed that same enthusiasm 
which is natural to his disposition when he perceives the cer- 
tainty of an event of public interest. At such a time his face 
is swiftly crimsoned with excitement — he breaks forth into a 
few swift words of exclamation — walks a few steps away and 
reflects, lest he should be deceived by his own fancy — becomes 
convinced that he is not in error, and it may be, dictates an 



EFFECT OF CRITICISM. 365 

article, or writes it with his own hand, to stamp his thoughts 
upon the public mind. No one doubts his intellect, or his 
power to convey the deductions of it, when he is seen leaning 
over the back of a chair, or sitting at his table, reciting the 
words which are to be printed and read immediately by hun- 
dreds of thousands of beings, anxious to know what he has to 
say on the topic of the hour. 

Empty rumor has proclaimed that Mr. Bennett does not 
write much. This is false, as will be proved before this 
volume is completed. He writes more than any journalist, 
probably, in the United States, and is always a close student 
of every subject that comes up for notice, or comment, or criti- 
cism. He is ever full of humor at the follies of men, and 
spares many more in his journal than he does with his tongue, 
though he seldom speaks severely of any one, and is even 
generous in his expressions towards many of his enemies. He 
sometimes wrongs his best friends, however, by making too 
free with their names. His enthusiasm often takes possession 
of him, when any new and valuable suggestion occurs which 
can be wrought into use, and towards any sincere effort of 
talent he always bends a willing ear, and lends a helping 
hand. 

In this way, he has supported the opera and the drama — 
painters and sculptors — lecturers and literary men. He has seen 
the necessity for creating an enthusiasm for any mental luxury, 
and he urges the public mind into that state that a good result 
may be the consequence. Stern criticism is seldom indulged 
in, because in American society it would have, and always 
does have, a bad effect upon the people, who are excessively 
shy of seeing or patronizing anything that has not had the 
stamp of unqualified approbation. 

Thus all the principal artists of the country, and most of the 
aspirants for fame, have been kindly treated and encouraged. 
A long list could be selected, were it necessary to do so, to 
prove the correctness of this assertion ; it is sufficient to appeal, 
however, to the history of those who have graced the various 
realms of art and of literature. It is true, that hollow pre- 



366 A FEW WORDS ON ACTING. 

tension, and sometimes real merit (more is the pity), have 
received the caustic touch of criticism, or the harsher severity 
of silence, but on the whole, the course of the Herald has been 
far more liberal towards artists and authors than any journal 
in the country. In 1845, the essays upon Miss Cushman's 
and on Mr. Hackett's success in Great Britain — the attempts 
to sustain the German and the Italian Opera — the efforts made 
to secure the public attention for the tragedian, Mr. Anderson, 
and for Mr. and Mrs. Kean — and other efforts for various 
artists all spoke of the desire to be of value to those who 
devote their lives to intellectual pursuits. . The estimate of 
Mr. Forrest's acting many persons may think by far too low 
for justice towards that distinguished artist. This is quite 
likely. There are various opinions always upon the qualities 
of artists — and few men have the nerve, if they have the 
ability, to break from their preconceived opinions of particular 
characters as represented by some favorite artist. Many men 
deem it a virtue to make Edmund Kean a standard for every- 
thing dramatic. Now Kean, probably, was not a better actor 
than Mr. Forrest. He certainly could not perform King Lear 
with so much truth and fidelity to nature as Mr. Forrest, who 
displays his own conception of the character with inimitable 
artistic grace, force, and finish. The poet Dana, in his " Idle 
Man," nearly thirty years ago, described Kean as he saw him 
in Othello, and taking that poetical estimate of the old English 
actor as literal truth, as high an encomium might be given to 
Mr. Forrest. 

An actor always should be judged by what he proposes to 
do, and not what the auditor wishes to see done ; and criticism 
goes beyond its limit when it sets up a model of its own to 
which the artist is asked to bow in homage. Five hundred 
auditors may have five hundred Hamlets in their mind's eye, 
but it would be absurd to suppose that Mr. Forrest can gratify 
each one of them in the course of a single evening, by personat- 
ing the ideal of each. 

No ! Every auditor and every critic is to sit in judgment 
not upon how far the portraiture of a character by an artist 



DEATH OF ANDREW JACKSON. 36"} 

may coincide with a certain stubborn fancy, or momentary 
caprice of bis own, but on tbe relation which the artistic results 
bear to the evident design of the actor himself. 

The Herald in 1845 said "Mr. Forrest is a melo-dramatic 
actor." There is no meaning in the phrase ; but if it mean 
that Mr. Forrest is not capable of performing the loftiest cha- 
racters of Shakspeare to the satisfaction of the most intelligent 
audience of the times, it is a judgment that cannot be deemed, 
sound, or the public may despair of ever seeing such characters 
represented. Mr. Forrest has worthily gained the distinction 
he enjoys, and the sympathetic critic, the only one who should 
criticise, can never willingly deprive him of his laurels gained 
by patient toil combined with an exuberant and glowing genius. 
Mr. Forrest, in 1845, was admired throughout England and 
Scotland. In Ireland he was almost idolized ; and everywhere 
by those who were the warmest admirers of Edmund Kean his 
merits were appreciated. It is well to record this, as there has 
been much misrepresentation on the subject. He was treated 
with less severity by the critics than any actor of the English 
theatre, and received more than customary commendation. 

Andrew Jackson, the ex-President, died early in June. 
The event was one of great public regret, which was expressed 
by funereal processions and eulogies from the popular tribunes. 
The customary pitiable spectacle was seen of thousands of po- 
litical enemies, the leaders of whom had assaulted his character 
for years, ready to exalt the virtues and merits of the heroic 
soldier and the bold statesman. 

Mr. Bennett had no such hypocritical tears to shed. He had 
been an admirer of President Jackson, as he was of the merits, 
and talents, and patriotism of John Quincy Adams, and when 
he pronounced his opinion upon the character of the deceased, 
it proved how superior his course had been to that of many 
popular journalists. 

Indeed, a marked feature of Mr. Bennett's political writings 
is that he has treated the very weakest President with that 
respect which is due to the highest office in the gift of the peo- 
ple, and it may be said, further, that even in all the wit, sar- 



368 EXTENSIVE CONFLAGRATIONS. 

casm, and merited censure on officers in the government poured 
forth by him from time to time, there cannot be found any 
parallels to the reckless and unprincipled language which may 
be found in the files of newspapers claiming for themselves a 
superior moral tone to the Herald. This is a truth susceptible 
of abundant proof, particularly if the curious reader will ex- 
amine the party newspapers for a few months prior to any 
Presidential election. 

On Saturday morning, July 19th, an unusually large fire, 
commencing in New street, took place. It was the most exten- 
sive conflagration known to New York city, except that of the 
Great Fire in December, 1835, when an entire third of the 
business section of the city below Wall Street was destroyed. 
In this second conflagration, the fire extended from near the 
corner of Wall Street, in a southerly direction, to Stone Street, 
on the east side of Broadway, and ran back to the eastern side 
of Broad Street. It also crossed Broadway and burned several 
buildings at the corner of Morris Street. It was attended by 
a terrific explosion in Broad Street, which caused a great deal 
of amusing discussion among scientific men on the explosive 
qualities of saltpetre. The fires in the first six months of 1845, 
on the American continent, destroyed more than twenty mil- 
lions of dollars in property ; as much as was destroyed in the 
Great Fire of 1835: 

Barbadoes #2,000,000 

Pittsburg 3,500,000 

London, Canada 500,000 

Fayetteville 500,000 

Quebec 7,500,000 

Matanzas 1,000,000 

New York 6,000,000 



$21,000,000 

Among the efforts made to defeat the election of Mr. Polk 
was one to which allusion is frequently made in political dis- 
cussions, politicians speaking of a political lie as a " Roorback." 
The expression originated thus. The Albany Evening Jour- 



ROORBACKS AND SLANDERS. 369 

nal copied from " an exchange paper " an extract purporting to 
be from " Roorback's Travels," in which the statement was 
made that forty -three slaves, with the marks of the branding 
iron upon them, and formerly the property of James K. Polk, 
" the present Speaker of the House of Representatives," were 
seen near " Duck River." 

On investigation it was found that the chief part of the ex- 
tract was original in " Featherstonhaugh's Tour " — that the 
scene had been changed from " New River " to one nearer 
Mr. Polk's residence, the serious part of the charge, which was 
an unmitigated falsehood and base invention, inserted — the 
period changed to two years subsequent to that described by 
Mr. Featherstonhaugh — and that " Roorback " never had exist- 
ed as an author ! 

Such is political lying, with which this country is cursed and 
the fair fame of its sons and daughters sullied, in every Presi- 
dential canvass. In this way was President Jackson's wife 
introduced into the political arena with every term of contempt 
that could be devised to sting the sensibility of one of the most 
valuable men of the present century, and through journals pub- 
lished by respectable men in the centres of refinement and 
civilization. In this way have hundreds been assailed from 
time to time with a recklessness only known to the envenomed 
energy of party spirit. 

Who will not remember the gross calumnies on Daniel Web- 
ster — the insulting description of his " remains " being seen on 
board a steamboat as he journeyed towards his quiet retreat at 
Marshfield — and the grosser description of his personal tastes, 
which it will be a libel to repeat 1 Thus has political warfare 
made the most abominable attacks on the public men of this 
country from the time of Washington ! 

The Father of his Country could not escape the malice of 
enmity, for his name was forged by demoniac hate, and his 
breast lacerated by slanders on his honor, his virtues, and his 
patriotism, even while he was engaged at Trenton, where his 
almost dispirited soldiers stained the snow and ice with their 
shoeless, bleeding feet as they marched, to strike the blow that 

16* 



370 SAM HOUSTON. 

not only gave liberty to this land, but increased the sum of 
happiness for every nation of the earth. 

The annexation of Texas and its admission to the Union of 
the States took place in 1845. On the 18th of June the 
Texas Congress gave its consent to the proposition for annex- 
ation — on the 4th of July a convention of the delegates of the 
people of Texas ratified the act by which finally that country 
was brought into the Union, and on the 22d of December the 
whole matter was definitively closed in the Senate of the 
United States. 

As a prelude to the circumstances which grew out of this 
event, and which will be noticed in the next chapter, the 
reader will be gratified to notice one of the most striking pro- 
phecies of Mr. Bennett. It was published on the 18th of May, 
1839, more than seven years before the fulfilment. Mr. Ben- 
nett was writing of Sam Houston — the " primitive statesman" 
of the present century — and seconded his prophecy. 

" This hero of San Jacinto will soon be in New York. He 
has gone through many trials and sharp scenes, since we saw 
him in Washington in 1832 ; but even then he chalked out 
the plan of operations which have since been carried out to the 
letter in Texas ; and added the prophetic declaration, that in 
a few years the Anglo-Saxon star-striped banner of liberty 
would float triumphant on the walls of the city of Montezuma ; 
and we shall live to see his declaration fulfilled IN toto." 

How literally this prediction has been made good all the 
world knows. With what reason then could Mr. Bennett 
oppose the admission of Texas, or the war with Mexico, when 
all his convictions were satisfying him that these events would 
take place ? Party journalists are expected to write against 
their own intuitive belief, but the independent journalist is a 
wiser man, even though he may be charged with being desti- 
tute of what some persons would dignify by the name of 
"principle" — often a species of monomania, or of tyranny, or 
of blind adherence to the formula of a coterie of politicians. 

Among other topics of public importance which excited 
public comment or discussion in 1845, was the overruling of a 



A VETO DEFEATED. 371 

Veto of President Tyler's by more than a requisite majority 
of two thirds, so that a law was passed without the President's 
signature. This nullification of the veto power was the first 
instance of the kind in the history of the government. It 
occurred February 20th. 

Towards the close of August Governor Silas Wright issued 
a proclamation upon the Anti-rent insurrection in Delaware 
county, New York. These subjects were treated with due 
attention by the Herald, and it was progressing towards the 
end of its tenth year, more firmly established in the minds of 
the people of Europe and of the United States as an influential 
journal, than at any preceding point in its history, yet still 
requiring great exertions to sustain and improve the character 
which it had obtained by a course at once slow yet sure; 
erratic, yet with " a method in its madness." 



372 PENNy PRESS IN BOSTON. 



CHAPTER XXVI 



In 1846 there was an unwonted activity in the newspaper 
establishments of all the great Atlantic cities. Preceding 
years had been marked by enterprises in the procuration of 
intelligence which had surprised those who contrasted the 
improvements which had been made within a few years with 
those feeble efforts which were apparent in 1835 and 1836, 
soon after the innovation introduced by the Penny Press. 

The Penny Press in Boston, as early as 1836, had produced 
no little sensation by running expresses from Washington and 
New York with important news, such as the Messages of the 
President, and, in one case, an editor nearly lost his life by 
excitement in riding on the locomotive from Worcester to 
Boston, about forty miles, in as many minutes. In a state of 
syncope, he was hurried in a carriage to Congress street, 
where with the greatest difficulty the President's Message was 
taken from his clutched fingers. This express was run against 
the Atlas and one or two other papers, by a combination of 
the Courier, Herald, and Commercial Gazette of Boston. 

The Herald in New York, however, had performed the 
greatest feats in expressing news for several years, and in 
1846 a natural rivalry sprang up to compete with it. This 
was carried out, as well as it could be, by a powerful combina- 
tion in several cities. Mr. Bennett was not intimidated by 
these efforts. On the contrary, he was spurred to greater 
exertions — for he determined not to be surpassed in a system 
of which he was, if not the originator, the most able and 
indefatigable exponent. 

Mr. Bennett, by continually reminding his rivals of his man}- 



RUNNING EXPRESSES. 373 

successes both by laud and sea, aroused them to the highest 
pitch of enthusiasm in the contests on behalf of the commercial 
public. He declared that speculators should not have the 
advantage of earlier news than the public at large, and how he 
succeeded in his labors may be gathered from the annexed 
extracts from the Herald, after he had run expresses in oppo- 
sition to his rivals. 

" The great commotion raised among the different journals 
in this city, and throughout the country, on the arrival of every 
steamer and packet-ship from Europe, is characteristic of Jour- 
nalism at the present day. 

" The system of running expresses, in order to obtain late 
news at the earliest moment possible, has been but lately 
introduced into the United States, and now may be said to 
form a part of the newspaper business. These expresses were 
the consequence of the revolution in Journalism that was brought 
about by the independent Press, about ten years since, in this 
city, and has been continued from that time until the present 
day. 

" Before the era of the independent Press, the old-fashioned 
sixpenny papers had a monopoly of Journalism on this continent, 
and conducted their business with the smallest outlay possible. 
News, no matter how important soever it might be, was not 
published until the vessel had reached and been made fast to 
the dock. In fact, the accommodation of the public was never 
thought of, and the little benefit derived from the journals of 
that time, had to be paid for at an extravagant rate. As soon 
as the independent Press entered on the field, and solicited a 
portion of public patronage, a decided difference between those 
of the old regime and those of the new was apparent to all. 
The latter brought into requisition an amount of enterprise 
and perseverance never before known in this country, and 
which took by surprise the public, as well as the editors of the 
old papers. The effect of this was immediately seen in the 
immense support given to the newspapers, and a corresponding 
reduction in the circulation of the old ones. In a day, as it 
were, a revolution was accomplished in Journalism in this 



374 A COMBINED OPPOSITION. 

country which is going on, gathering strength as it proceeds* 
till in a few more years, the whole field will be clear of the 
old-fashioned and lazy sixpenny, and will be occupied by the 
cheap, independent Press. 

" A great improvement in the old-fashioned journals is also 
apparent, and a greater regard is paid to the public than was 
ever before seen. The serious inroads on their subscription 
lists by the independent Press, roused them up from a state of 
inertia and imbecility they had been in for a long time ; and 
they had, in self defence, to follow the lead of the independent 
Press, and bring into use a portion of that enterprise which 
marked the career of their opponents. Still, however, they 
were beaten by the independent Press in every description of 
enterprise, and particularly by the Herald, in running ex- 
presses with late European news, at an enormous expense, and 
sending it over the whole country from eighteen to twenty- 
four hours ahead of them. The Herald was the first paper to 
commence this great enterprise, and our subscription list 
satisfactorily assures us, that our efforts to serve the public 
have been appreciated. 

" The extraordinary success that has attended our exertions, 
as might naturally be expected, created a great amount of 
envy and jealousy in our rivals, and compelled them, after they 
had resorted to every other means to crush us, to follow in the 
track we had laid out. Accordingly, they have recently made 
a few efforts to compete with us in this description of enter- 
prise. They did not, however, meet us in a fair competition, 
but combined by dozens in five principal cities, with the inten- 
tion of prostrating us, and with what success the public 
already is aware. Although we have combined against us 
now, an alliance numbering some sixteen papers published in 
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, 
we are not to be frightened from our course ; but, on the con- 
trary, we will continue our exertions in that, as well as in 
every other respect, and do the utmost in our power for our 
subscribers, in return for the liberal and unprecedented patronage 
they have awarded us. These exertions we consider ourselves 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 375 

bound to continue, not only from motives of policy, but from 
pride, too. We claim the honor of introducing this enterprise 
into Journalism in the United States, and as long as the Herald 
is in existence, we will continue it. If, at any time, we 
should be distanced in this business, and the public should get 
foreign news of consequence, through the exertions of the 
Holy Alliance, ahead of the Herald, we shall still claim the 
honor accruing from it ; for were it not that the Herald intro- 
duced the system, the public would be to this day trusting tc 
Uncle Sam's mail-bag for the earliest intelligence, both foreign 
and domestic — we say, " at any time," for the best arrange- 
ments are likely to fail occasionally. "With our fleet of news 
clippers, manned by the hardiest men in existence, cruising 
always outside the Hook, at distances varying from fifty to 
two hundred and fifty miles from land, failure in getting news 
in the speediest way possible may appear out of the question. 
But accidents will happen in the best regulated office." 

Mr. Bennett called the combination against him by the name 
of the Holy Alliance. At one time he beat them in their most 
formidable opposition. They proposed to run an express from 
Halifax, where the Cambria would first make land, and then 
proceed to Boston. Mr. Bennett undertook to run his express 
from Boston. The rest of the story is in the annexed ex- 
tracts. 

" The steamship Cambria arrived at Boston at half past ten 
o'clock on Wednesday night, and the express of the Holy Alli- 
ance arrived from Halifax at about the same time. Our energetic 
express agent boarded her immediately, and before it was 
known she had arrived. After he had received the papers for 
this office, and got everything ready to start, the express of the 
Holy Alliance was about three quarters of an hour in advance 
of him ; but thinking nothing of that, he, with the steam all 
up and ready, mounted a locomotive which was in readiness 
for him by previous arrangement, and pursued his way to 
Worcester over the Worcester Railroad, at a rate of speed 
never equalled on this continent, reaching Worcester in less 
than one hour. From Worcester he took the railroad to Nor- 



376 THE LAST EXPRESS. 

wich, and made that point in less than two hours. He then, 
went on board the splendid steamboat Traveller, at Allen's 
point, and crossed the Sound to Greenpoint, a distance of thirty- 
one miles, against a head tide, in one hour and thirty -three 
minutes. Probably no boat in the world could have run the 
distance with the same wind and tide within the same time. 
On arriving at Greenpoint our agent took the Long Island Rail- 
road to South Brooklyn. The run upon this road was unpre- 
cedented — indeed, we dare hardly state the speed. The Pre- 
sident of that company, in accordance with the contract we 
had made with him, had relays of locomotives stationed at three 
different points on the road, to supply any deficiency that 
might arise, and each tender was provided with a hand car, 
that would, in case of emergency, proceed at the rate of twelve 
miles per hour. 

" The whole running time of our express from the time it 
left Boston until it reached our office, was seven hours and five 
minutes, a rate of speed never before approached in the history 
of steam. Distance two hundred and fifty miles." 

The establishment of telegraphic lines, however, was soon 
to put an end to these efforts of journalists to obtain news by 
special expresses. On the 7th of May the Herald referred to 
the probability of a termination of such rivalry in these words 
on the " last express." 

" The express from Boston which brought the first intelli- 
gence of the arrival and going ashore of the Cambria, will pro- 
bably be the last express of the kind which will ever run 
between the two cities, with foreign news. Vale, vale, longum 
vale ! 

" We live in a transition period of society. In yesterday's 
paper we published the intelligence of the proceedings of Con- 
gress of the preceding day, simultaneously with the newspapers 
which are published in Washington city itself — two hundred 
and twenty miles distant." 

What changes have taken place since that period ! How 
remarkable have been the strides taken by the enterprising 
men connected with the Electric Telegraph within a few years ! 



TELEGRAPHING. 377 

The valuable work of Alexander Jones on the history of the 
Telegraph alone gives a true view of the progress and impor- 
tance of this great invention of the present century. 

In 1852 there were about fifteen thousand miles of lines in 
the United States and Canada, binding Quebec to New Orleans, 
over a distance of three thousand miles ; and, since then, 
thousands of cities and towns enjoy the benefits derived from 
this system of communication. In 1844, upon a grant by Con- 
gress of thirty thousand dollars, a line was established between 
Baltimore and Washington. In 1845 a line was opened 
between New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. In 1846 
this was completed by filling the link from Wilmington 
to Baltimore. During the Mexican war, the news of battles 
in Mexico was sent to New York from Wilmington. Albany 
and Buffalo were united in this year, and New York and 
Albany on the 22d of June, 1847. On the 18th of July, 1846, 
the foreign news was taken by Telegraph from Boston to New 
York — and lines were established in several directions by F. 
0. J. Smith, Henry O'Reilly, E. Cornell, and by several com- 
panies formed for the purpose. 

Mr. Bennett was the first journalist to distinguish himself 
by an important enterprise in telegraphing at a heavy expense, 
and under no ordinary difficulties. This was prior to the com- 
bination of the Associated Press, which has been established 
many years, each journal enjoying its privileges by contribut- 
ing towards the expense, which is about forty or fifty thou- 
sand dollars a year. The occasion alluded to was when Mr. 
Clay delivered a speech on the Mexican war at Lexington, 
Kentucky. The speech was sent by express a distance of 
eighty miles from Lexington to Cincinnati, and then telegraphed 
to New York, where it was received early in the morning after 
its delivery, and was published by the Herald. 

The principal events in 1846 to which the history of the 
Herald is linked must now be noticed. Early in February, 
Mr. Bennett went to Washington, and on the 15th wrote a 
long political letter to his journal. He examined the Presi- 
dential question in his usual calm and cautious manner, and 



378 PREPARING FOR EUROPE. 

again on the 15th of March wrote another letter on the condi 
tion of opinions at Washington, exhibiting the same earnest 
desire to acquaint the readers with the progress of political 
action that has characterized his energy and tact during many 
years of editorial toil. 

The Oregon Question was then exciting the gravest appre- 
hensions. The spirit of the people was bellicose and threatening, 
and the dangers of a war with Great Britain were alarming. 
The New Tariff Bill which was to supersede that of 1842 was 
a subject, also, upon which there was much excitement, and 
upon this topic he gave his opinions, leaning towards the side 
of Free Trade. The Herald, at the same time, was guided by 
his advice, for his private letters, as usual during his absence, 
marked the course of policy to be pursued. Such affairs as 
the shipwrecks on Squan Beach, and the acts of the Barnegat 
Pirates, could be managed very well by the editors left in 
charge of the Herald — but the threatened shipwrecks of the 
States, or the conduct of the political pirates at Washington, 
needed the cautious treatment of the editor-in-chief — and they 
received it ! The writers he had left behind him could dis- 
course of the performances of Henri Herz, Camillo Sivori, or 
the Keans, and their splendid revivals of the pageant plays of 
Shakspeare, but it required the master hand of the Editor him- 
self to criticise the performances of those who were endeavor- 
ing to make music from the political offices, or to strut in the 
garb and habiliments of those dignitaries to whose care a 
nation's glory had been consigned in patriotic days. The sub- 
altern editors could chronicle the advance made in Russ 
Pavement, as it was imbedded between Chambers and Reade 
streets, but Mr. Bennett himself chose to see how solid a plat- 
form for the Presidency could be constructed between the 
White House and the capitol, at Washington. Thus did Mr. 
Bennett prepare himself to comprehend the course to be 
adopted for the guidance of the Herald during his contemplated 
absence in Europe, which he designed to make, in order still 
further to strengthen the position which his journal occupied 
there, and to increase its value for all its readers. 



A. VIRGINIA DUEL. 379 

The subjects which were about to need comment and eluci- 
dation were many. In the distance, and in the future, there 
were grave events ripening for the astonishment of the whole 
world; and even before the departure of Mr. Bennett from 
Washington the Army of Occupation under General Taylor 
was advancing to the Rio Grande, where it took up its position 
before Matamoras on the 28th of March, one month, within 
four days, prior to those first Mexican hostilities, which led to the 
declaration of war on the 12th of May following, out of which 
so many events important to the destiny of the United States 
have sprung. 

In the history of Journalism there had been a sad episode, 
too, while Mr. Bennett was at Washington. A duel took place 
between two journalists at Richmond, Virginia — a bloody 
encounter. John H. Pleasants and Thomas Ritchie, Jr., met 
in the field of honor, as it used to be termed, armed with 
swords and pistols. Each advanced on the other, firing several 
shots, and then the swords were resorted to. Mr. Pleasants 
received four shot wounds, and one gash with the sword, and 
died two days after this awful tragedy. Mr. Ritchie was 
slightly wounded. This was the result of having no established 
or conventional code for journalists, who have been trained 
altogether by the accursed examples of those who were edu- 
cated by the war-spirit of 1812. 

The Mexican War has not left such immoral influences, 
thanks to the more liberal spirit of mankind — for its conquests 
swept away from civilization the disaffected and idle into new 
scenes of industry and of ambition. In July Commodore Sloat 
took possession of Monterey and declared California annexed, 
eight months before General Kearney issued his proclamation, 
absolving the people of California from any further allegiance 
to the Republic of Mexico, and regarding them as citizens of 
the United States, and even six weeks before Commodore 
Stockton announced all ports of the west of Mexico and south 
of San Diego in a state of blockade, and took possession of the 
golden state of the Pacific, in the name of the United States. 

On the 16th of June Mr. Bennett, as bearer of despatches. 



380 REPUTATION OF GREAT MEN. 

accompanied by his lady, child, and servant, departed for 
Europe. He sailed in the Hibernia steamer from Boston, and 
arrived in Liverpool after a short voyage. He did not have 
an opportunity of personally giving his opinion, therefore, on 
many subjects of interest which distinguished American politics 
in the Summer of 1846, although he carried those preliminary 
assurances with respect to the settlement of the Oregon bound- 
ary, which caused the exchange of ratifications at the Foreign 
Oifice on the morning of July 17th. He was not at his 
post to say what he thought of the veto of the Rivers and 
Harbors bill on the 3d of August, or that of the French 
Spoliations bill on the 8th of the same month, or even to give 
the public a pleasant commentary on the public secession of 
two hundred German Catholics from their religion — which 
took place at the Tabernacle on the 13th of October. Indeed, 
the public were deprived of his editorial views on the progress 
of the Mexican war, which was the grand theme of all journals 
and all men, after the settlement of the Boundary Question, 
and kept the whole people in a state of daily excitement. 

Before he departed, however, he said something which should 
be remembered by journalists, and which it is certain Mr. 
Bennett himself sometimes forgets, although he must have the 
credit of being more uniformly respectful towards men in dis- 
tinguished positions than the political Press. He was advert- 
ing to the treatment of Daniel Webster. 

" We ought to guard the reputation of our great men — to 
whatever party they belong — better than to make them the 
sport of other nations, by revealing every little thing, by a 
forced construction, to their discredit. However much Mr. 
Webster may differ from other great men, he is yet one of the 
master minds of the present age, and of this country. He has 
added reputation and glory to his native land ; and that repu- 
tation ought to be cherished, encouraged, and taken care of, 
by all those who wish to maintain the character of our country. 
We do not wish to say a word of censure on any of the parties 
in this affair, but we cannot help expressing regret at the 
course the matter has taken." 



A VARIETY OF SUBJECTS. 381 

What is alluded to as " this affair," was the conduct of Mr, 
Ingersoll in making charges against Mr. Webster with respect 
to the Secret Service money paid by the latter in connexion 
with the settlement of the Oregon dispute. 

Before proceeding to point out Mr. Bennett's course in 
Europe, it may be as well to notice one or two facts of public 
interest which may be added to the history of 1846. 

There were several projects for a Railroad to the Pacific 
during the year, but the most gigantic one was that known as 
Whitney's, and which has been so publicly discussed down to 
recent days that nothing further need be said upon it. 

In criminal affairs, the trial at Boston of Albert J. Tirrell for 
the murder of Maria Ann Bickford was one that excited 
unusual interest. He was defended by Rufus Choate, whose 
theory was one of the most remarkable ever known to the 
records of jurisprudence, but well substantiated by facts and 
philosophy. The prisoner was acquitted on the ground of 
committing the act in a state of somnambulism. 

In the department of amusements, beyond the performances 
of Mr. and Mrs. Kean, which were conducted with the utmost 
regard to costume and all dramatic accessories, there was nothing 
beyond ordinary interest. Little effort was made to improve 
the condition of the stage in any respect, or to aid American 
dramatic literature. Lectures increased, and entertainments 
for instruction as well as amusement were devised with some 
success, authors turning their attention from the stage to the 
rostrum. On the 18th of September, Niblo's establishment,was 
burned with many adjoining buildings. 

Mr. Bennett remained in Liverpool a few days after his 
arrival there, and proceeded to London, where he was engaged 
for some time in renewing and increasing arrangements con- 
nected with the foreign department of the Herald. He found 
a great change towards Americans during this visit. The 
American Congress had just passed the new Tariff bill — on the 
29th of April, 1844, Pennsylvania had passed its Tax bill to 
restore the credit of the State by paying its debts — the Oregon 
war-fever was over, and American courage was looking up ! 



382 FASHIONABLE SOCIETY. 

The assaults of the Foreign Quarterly were ended — even 
O'Connell was no longer enraged. In fact Mr. Bennett now 
was in a fair way to be lionized. He was invited everywhere 
— saw everything he wanted to see — and found no one dis- 
posed to insult him in Corn Exchanges, or through ponderous 
periodicals, or even in broad sheets, or broad streets. He had 
passed the Rubicon — he had run the gauntlet of the whole 
army of pen and ink men, and had no more to fear. In fact, 
he was a welcome gentleman to good society. 

" Of all the soirees which we have attended since our arrival 
in London, one of the most agreeable was a recherche, night we 
spent at Lady Morgan's elegant residence in one of the beauti- 
ful squares near Hyde Park. Lady Morgan, better known in 
the United States as the once beautiful Miss Owenson, the 
famous authoress, moves in the highest circles of fashion and 
literature, and is one of the most delightful persons we ever 
met. The evening of her days is poetry and grace, brought 
down from heaven to human life. 

" We have seen a great deal of the structure, forms, shapes, 
and appearances of the upper and fashionable circles here, and 
a general and vivid description of such a state of society I 
have never yet seen written. It can be done so as to be 
pleasing, without any personality. To-morrow we proceed to 
the Rhine, and shall visit Baden-Baden, Southern Germany, 
Vienna, Switzerland, &c, — after that return to Paris, and 
think of St. Petersburgh, and also of Italy. We have received 
numerous letters in London and elsewhere, to persons of the 
highest rank on the continent." 

Between the 2d of July and the 12th of November he went 
through Switzerland, Italy, Istria, Hungary, Bohemia, Sax- 
ony, and Prussia. He remained a fortnight at Geneva, that 
lovely locality consecrated by the genius of so many eminent 
men who have resided in it, and from every important point he 
wrote letters for publication, descriptive of such scenes as he 
beheld, or enriched with such opinions as seemed reasonable 
from the aspect of society. 

While in London, he attended Her Majesty's Theatre in 



THE OPERA AND TA3LIONI. 383 

the Haymarket, where the ballet and opera combined, at 
enormous expense, always ruin the manager, as they ever 
must, where public taste is supported at a heavy expense, and 
by those who desire to be deemed fashionable, even though 
they have not the means to indulge in the raging luxury. 

Mr. Bennett's views on the opera seem to have had a correct 
basis. He does not seem to have been charmed much with 
Grisi, whose unfortunate necessity for swallowing saliva so 
often stops herself and her whole orchestra to the detriment 
of all time, that no one pleasantly can listen, even if her tones 
of voice and acting reward his patience for its complimentary 
endurance. 

" We visited last evening (July 12th), the Italian Opera, 
and saw a succession of celebrities, such as is to be seen no- 
where in the world, except on the London boards. On the 
same evening there were Grisi, Lablache, Fornasari, Mario, 
with many others in the opera. 

" In the ballet it might be said all the talent of Europe was 
concentrated, in order to gratify the high and aristocratic 
circles of London — Taglioni, Cerito, the younger Taglioni, 
Perrot, St. Leon, &c, — making a combination of such a descrip- 
tion of talent as is to be seen nowhere else. Taglioni appeared 
in the ' Gitana,' covered with diamonds — whether real or 
imitations, we know not. She received a great deal of ap- 
plause ; but it appeared to me much of it was premeditated 
and prepared, and not exactly spontaneous. The praises of 
the newspapers next morning, went far beyond the merits of 
the piece, or of the dancers. 

" Taglioni, no doubt, is a splendid danseuse, full of poetry 
and grace ; she is classical in all her movements, and dances 
from the tips of her fingers to the ends of her toes; all her 
limbs combine in movements producing the same graceful 
impression upon the spectators. And yet the whole appears 
natural, without study, and without effort. This is the essence 
of her dancing. The critics have talked much of refined danc- 
ing, the poetry of motion, and all that — it is certain, however, 
in the ballet, as now exhibited in London, there is a degree of 



384 MONT BLANC. 

personal nudity in the principal figurantes, which almost 
approaches the borders of the shameful. Their drapery is so 
scant, so light, and so gossamer, and they are made up in such 
a singular style and costume, that it almost appears as if the 
Venus de Medici herself, and the naked Graces, had come 
down and engaged with Lumley to dance a pas or two, turn 
round, and be off ! 

"Yet this extraordinary department of entertainment was 
attended and applauded with vociferation, by those who call 
themselves the most refined, the highest, the most virtuous 
aristocracy in the world. It certainly appears to me like 
virtue on the verge of licentiousness, and brings to my recol- 
lection historical reminiscences of the luxury of Rome or 
Venice, before their fall from that empire to which they had 
once attained. 

" After this engagement, Taglioni, it is said, will retire to 
the Lago del Como, in Italy, and there spend the rest of her 
days in quiet and repose. The younger Taglioni, called 
Louise, appears to be ambitious of filling her place for the 
future, but it is doubtful if she will be able to reach the same 
point of grace and style which already distinguish Cerito. 
Grisi is passe, is uncommonly fat — greasy, indeed — though 
rather graceful in her movements — nor do we think she filled 
the part of Rosina in "II Barbiera" with half the abandon or 
talent which formerly distinguished Malibran. Mario certainly 
will not come up to what old Garcia used to be in Almaviva." 

From the region of art to that of nature there is a long bridge, 
although philosophers continually strive to blend one with the 
other. In August Mr. Bennett visited Mont Blanc : 

" Sitting down at the foot of Mont Blanc seems to excite 
similar emotions to those we feel at the foot of the Falls of 
Niagara. They are both sublime — both excite the like emo- 
tions — both speak, as it were, from the tomb of eternity to the 
innermost recesses of the soul. The first view I had of the 
mighty mass was terribly magnificent ; it was last evening 
(August 26th), from the bridge of St. Martin's, twelve miles 
from the base of the mountain. Its magnificent peaks, tower- 



STYLE OF THINKING. 385 

ing far above the clouds, were shining in the evening sun, 
clear, white, cold, and awful. The sight came so suddenly, so 
unexpectedly upon me at the turn of the road, that it made 
me start back in awe, wonder, or fear. It was a singular 
feeling, and can only be paralleled by those produced by the 
terrible rush of Niagara Falls." 

Of the Falls Mr. Bennett had written in 1838. He described 
them as they were seen at night, and as they were beheld by 
day, and contrasted the effects produced by them at these* 
periods. A single sentence will not impede the narrative. 

" The sight of these magnificent rapids, racing past each 
other towards the dreadful precipice — the sound of the tre- 
mendous roar of waters — the mighty gulph and chasms in every 
direction, dispose the soul to shrink from the dirty world and 
all the emptiness it contains." 

Mr. Bennett does not trust himself to elaborate descriptions 
of natural scenery any more than he does to close analytical 
expositions of a question in politics or finance; but he is 
always forcible, as he seizes the general strong points before 
him, and conveys them to his readers with direct plainness. 
He is not sufficiently skilled in mere rhetoric to apply those 
expressions which would convey the peculiar emotions which 
excite him. His style is rather old-fashioned, but not the less 
strong on that account. His words are few, but well chosen. 
He seldom quotes, or refers to others, although he is an active 
reader, and is well acquainted with the classical authors, 
ancient and modern. It may be noticed that he frequently 
sacrifices the expression of the thought wholly to the thought 
itself, so unimportant seems the vehicle in comparison to the 
matter to be conveyed. 



17 



386 THE MEXICAN BATTLES 



CHAPTER XXVII 



The Mexican war furnished the journals of the United 
States, in 1846-47, a variety of news connected with the bril- 
liant exploits of the American army, which made all other sub- 
jects of comparatively little interest to the public. In Europe, 
too, the histories of the battles in Mexico attracted uncommon 
attention, and everywhere the tone of public feeling changed 
towards this country, which had been misrepresented by 
tourists to such an extent that there was little respect for 
Americans except on the part of those who were the best 
informed as to the actual strides this youthful Republic had 
taken within a few years. 

The financial disturbances in the United States, which have 
been adverted to already, had increased the feeling of disdain 
towards the United States which had been engendered by 
superficial travellers, in their attempts to write " smart" and 
saleable works to gratify popular prejudices, so that nothing 
could remove so quickly the effect of fashionable slanders, as 
the records of those brilliant victories which exacted the admi- 
ration of the most skilful soldiers of the old world. 

It does not come within the province of these pages to trace 
the course of the American army from its first position on the 
Rio Grande to its entrance into the capital of Mexico, together 
with its conquests of the Californias, and all the important 
posts belonging to the Mexicans. Such a record is contained 
in volumes specially devoted to the subject. Yet it will not 
be out of place to cite two or three more of the facts which 
were noticed in the Herald from time to time, as they may 
serve to quicken the memory of those who would recur to the* 



FAMINE IN IRELAND. 387 

prominent incidents which characterize the past. In 1847, 
General Kearney, March 1st, absolved by proclamation all the 
people of California from any further allegiance to the Republic 
of Mexico, and declared that they should be regarded as 
citizens of the United States. Vera Cruz surrendered to 
General Scott and Commodore Perry, March 25th. April 2d, 
Alvarado surrendered to Lieutenant Hunter. On the eight- 
eenth of the same month Cerro Gordo was carried by assault, 
and on the same day Tuspan surrendered to Commodore 
Perry. The Mexican works at Contreras were carried by 
General Smith's command August 20th ; and September 8th 
General Worth took the fortifications of El Molino del Hey. 
Chapultepec yielded on the twelfth of the same month. The 
Treaty of Peace signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo February 2d 
was not proclaimed till the fourth of July, 1848. 

In 1847, the famine in Ireland shocked the sensibilities of 
the people of the United States, who devised means to relieve 
some portion of the distress concerning which many painful 
accounts were published in the journals of the time. The 
Jamestown and Macedonian, national vessels, were freighted 
by private subscriptions in the United States, and were sent to 
Ireland on errands of mercy. 

" The sloop of war Jamestown left Boston, March 28th, and 
arrived at Cork, April 12th — when the ravages of the famine 
were at their height. The Macedonian sailed for Ireland, July 
18th. A more horrible picture of human misery and destitution, 
in a country blessed by Heaven with every advantage of soil 
and climate, cannot be conceived than that which was beheld 
by those who were in Cork in the Spring of 1847. 

Entire families were howling with the pangs of hunger, and 
dying upon the pavements of a crowded city, while speculators 
in bread stuffs, who could not endure tLe thought of a fall in 
the prices of corn, furtively cast the " sweated" portions of 
their granaries into the night-tide, that it might be carried out 
to sea ! It was said that two hundred thousand pounds ster- 
ling were due to the Provincial Bank of Ireland by one house 
engaged in the importation of corn, which was bought by the 



388 CORK DURING THE FAMINE. 

cargo at thirteen pounds per ton, merely to be hoarded for a 
rise in prices ! 

Never was a Cicero more needed to improve the tone of 
commercial morals — and it would have been well for specula- 
tors to have read the Roman's argument in his " De Officiis," 
on the morality of such acts in the country of a starring people. 
How far the contributions in the Jamestown alleviated the 
immediate wants of the unfortunate souls of Cork and Skib- 
bereen is not known. No satisfactory report of the distribu- 
tion of the articles sent from a sympathizing country — no 
proof of the beneficial effects of the donations, has been furnish- 
ed to encourage similar philanthropic efforts at a future day, 
should the heavy hand of calamity fall upon a distant people — 
and that any good resulted from American exertions to dimi- 
nish human suffering in Ireland has been nowhere so loudly 
denied as in Cork, where fifteen thousand persons at one time 
were perishing of hunger — where hardy men stiffened and 
died in the streets, standing bolt upright — and Father Mathew's 
Cemetery was made a charnel house for heaps of human bodies, 
gathered often, through the contributions of citizens, from the 
streets, in which they had fallen, out of sight of friends, of 
kindred, and of sympathy. 

A just punishment would have been meted to the hoarding 
speculators in breadstuff's in the great cities of England and 
Ireland, had the people seized the granaries and divided the 
spoils. There are times when forbearance in a populace is 
not a virtue — when a patient tranquillity becomes a vice. 
Such was the case in Ireland in 1847. Money, guided by a 
heartless avaricious combination, sacrificed thousands of men, 
women, and children remorselessly — and, had the hungry com- 
bined against their enemies, they would have been justified by 
the circumstances in annihilating those who were the cause of 
so much suffering and death. Commercial sophistry should 
never be permitted to inflict death upon a people with impu- 
nity. 

Mr. Bennett was in Paris in the Winter and Spring of 1847, 
and never was more industrious than at that time, in corres- 



ANCIENT AND MODERN ART. 389 

ponding with the Herald. His letters were elaborately pre- 
pared. In January and February he wrote upon the Paris, 
London, and New York Press, on society in Paris, on the 
character of Louis Philippe, on the rightful claimant of the 
Ether Discovery, on the political positions of France and 
England, and on the troubles between Lord Normanby and M. 
Guizot. 

In January Mr. Bennett was presented at Court to Louis 
Philippe, and was taxed thirty francs a night for three nights 
in succession for his court dress, sword, and chapeau. It was 
suggested, as he held a commission as a Major-General in the 
Mormon Army, that he should appear in the costume suited 
to his distinguished rank, but as he had never consulted his 
tailor on the subject, he was not prepared as military Ameri- 
cans travelling in Europe usually are, with the glittering 
pageantry of war. 

In March Mr. Bennett wrote letters on the fine arts, the 
theatrical genius of France, on American musicians and artists 
in Europe, on Lola Montes and her history, and on the condi- 
tion of European governments. In these letters he exhibited 
towards American artists a kindness that is remembered by 
many now known to fame, and brought their merits con- 
spicuously before the public. 

Mrs. Bennett also wrote letters to a friend, which were pub- 
lished in the Herald. They were highly interesting, and 
exhibited the originality and power of her mind in a favorable 
light. Her letters from Rome, Florence, and Genoa were 
much admired for their simple elegance and unpretending 
merit. 

Mr. Bennett's admiration of the works of ancient art was not 
like that of his lady. While she dwelt with pleasure upon the 
productions of ancient masters, Mr. Bennett was engaged prac- 
tically in advancing the interests of modern art, and conse- 
quently of those living laborers in the field of refinement 
whose exertions so sparingly are recognised when appreciation 
is valuable. 

In his peculiar originality and independence on this sub- 



390 POPULAR DISCONTENT. 

ject, the reader will not fail to discern how the true spirit of a 
journalist directed his opinions. He could neither do any good 
to the departed geniuses of other ages, nor could they exalt his 
position, or increase his influence. It was in his power, how- 
ever, to draw towards the Herald the eyes of critics and of 
artists in the realms of modern art. This he accomplished by 
the pains taken to acquaint himself with the hopes and am- 
bitions of those who were striving to excel in their several 
specialities. In giving his opinion on the beauty of the works 
of modern painters, sculptors, and composers, he said of the 
old masters and their productions : 

" I must confess, that I admire modern art far beyond 
ancient. Old paintings and old statues had their merit in their 
own day. They formed a great step in the progress of art 
towards perfection ; but many of the very old paintings which 
I have seen, are very much like the very old wines that old 
connoisseurs talk of — old humbugs, got up by old humbugs to 
humbug the young humbugs. I am a very unbeliever — a per- 
fect infidel, in the superiority of ancient art. Man and man's 
works are progressive — monkeys and monkeys' works are 
the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." 

The condition of Europe in 1847 was such as to excite no 
ordinary apprehensions. With the difficulty of obtaining food, 
came popular discontent, and the monarchical governments 
began to fortify themselves in their weakness, while they 
affected to sneer at the example of the United States. Mr. 
Bennett wrote ably upon the condition of the governments 
around him — and had he done nothing else in his life, would 
have been entitled to the credit of having a general political 
sagacity for anticipating effects from causes. 

The influence of the United States on the people of Europe 
was perceived very clearly by Mr. Bennett, although he was 
aware that the statesmen around him were anxious to treat the 
American continent as by no means a desirable home for the 
cultivation of manners or morals. He said in one of his able 
letters, written on the 23d of May — 

" We are decidedly in the first stage of a great transition in 



EDUCATION OF JOURNALISTS. 391 

the civilized world. Europe and America now form, and are 
forming, a single community of nations. Steam, electricity, 
the Press, applied to all the practical purposes of life, have 
removed mountains and oceans that formerly separated nations. 
The United States has entered upon a new era of her wonder- 
ful history ; and her statesmen, her politicians, her generals, 
her journalists, ought to study that position, and take advan- 
tage of every element favorable to her progress in a right 
direction. A calm, quiet, and philosophical investigation of 
the governments and nations of Europe, is more necessary 
than ever to the public men of America. We act, and think, 
and write, not alone for an American community, but for a 
community in Europe, who are always ready to judge us 
hastily and harshly, who hate our free institutions, dread our 
increasing power and influence, and would adopt any policy, 
consistent with their own safety, to check our progress, dis- 
grace our arms, or dismember our Union. 

"Europe looks backward — America looks forward. The 
future of the United States opens a prospect of unbounded 
happiness and influence, if the people and the public men are 
true to themselves, and wise in their generation. The prospect 
of Europe, as far as the eye of prediction can accurately reach, 
is full of changes, commotions, tumults, insurrections, revolu- 
tions — leading, probably, after a long series of events, to peace 
and probable prosperity, under more liberal systems of govern- 
ment." 

" I came to Europe for the purpose of studying out these new 
relations of the two continents, produced by the wonderful 
physical improvements of the age. In England, in France, in 
Italy, in Germany, everywhere, I have been busy on these 
subjects. Every statesman and every journalist ought to go 
through the same process of calm investigation into these new 
and weighty relations. 

" This cannot be done in a hurried tour of a few summer 
months through France and England, with a run to Baden or 
the Alps. You must go leisurely on your way, as a contempla- 
tive student and philosopher — calmly investigate the shapes 



392 FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 

and tendencies of all the elements of civilization, and resolutely 
work out their differences as compared with the United States. 
I have done so, from the minute to the comprehensive — em- 
bracing politics, government, religion, society, art, philosophy, 
and particularly the Press. The state and condition of the 
Press, and its connexion with government and the people, I 
have studied with care. For this purpose, I have visited 
almost every capital or city of note in Europe — in living, fer- 
menting, changing, transition Europe. On my return to New 
York, I think, with these investigations and facts, I shall be 
able to do something for the American Press, that will aid 
somewhat the onward march of the Republic to greatness, 
power, and dignity. At all events I will try." 

Mr. Bennett's intercourse with the principal journalists 
and statesmen in Paris, enabled him to profit by the opinions 
of the several political schools of Europe. He assured him- 
self with respect to the true state of parties, and again and 
again predicted the certainty of a revolution throughout the 
old continent. 

" On the whole, Europe is in an extraordinary state of tran- 
sition. The Press, railroads, steam, electricity, the increase of 
population, and rise of the United States, all concur to produce 
a gradual but certain revolution, of which no one can see the 
end, or even its course of action. The elements of society, 
religion, government, and philosophy, are in a constant state 
of fermentation ; and not all the existing governments united, 
with a million of soldiers at their command, can long reprejss 
the energies of three hundred millions of people. A new age 
is bursting upon civilization. 

" The legislative bodies of both France and England are 
now in session. The subjects which engage their attention are 
of a novel and extraordinary kind. One portion of these mat- 
ters consists of the intrigues of courts — the marriages of princes 
— the extinction of treaties ; another portion is formed of the 
distress of the people, the glimmerings of insurrection and 
revolution, and the new attitude forced upon Europe towards 
America. All the commercial restrictions and laws heretofore 



JOURNALISM IN PARIS. 393 

put in force against the United States by England and France, 
have been broken down by the terrible destitution and famine 
which prevail in both countries. The awful deficiency of the 
crops has produced a commercial revolution which will throw 
the balance of wealth into the lap of the United States in a 
few short years, and make our country the great leading power 
of the commercial world." 

The Press in Europe was studied carefully by Mr. Bennett 
during his residence in the great capitals of the Old World. It 
will repay the reader to examine his opinions upon the relative 
condition and character of the leading newspapers of the chief 
commercial cities of the two continents. 

Paris, January 22, 1847. 

The newspaper Press in Paris is one of the most remarkable engines 
in France. In government, religion, morals, modes, philosophy, literature, 
and commerce, it is more or less a potent element, exercising an influence 
not only over Paris and France, but over the whole surrounding conti- 
nent. 

There are over fifteen daily newspapers published in Paris, each pos- 
sessing a distinct character and circulation of its own, but all forming a 
general similitude in management and design, somewhat different from 
the Press of London, and more perhaps resembling the journals of New 
York. 

The circulation of all the daily Paris journals is probably over one 
hundred and fifty thousand sheets per day — that of London about one 
half that number. Before the July Revolution, Journalism was restricted 
and expensive, though perhaps equally powerful as a moral and political 
weapon. 

As far as 1 can ascertain, the circulation of the Paris newspapers before 
1830 did not exceed fifty thousand sheets per day, the price of each 
journal being about fifteen dollars per annum, more or less. Since that 
time, a remarkable movement and development took place in the news- 
papers, very nearly about the same time and of the same character which 
began in New York, when I started one of the first cheap papers com- 
menced there. The cheap system was then adopted in Paris — more 
variety was introduced — and the result has been a vast increase of news- 
papers, both in the number of individual sheets, as well as in the circula- 
tion of many of them. 

At this moment the Siecle is supposed to have a circulation of twenty 

17* 



394 INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM. 

five thousand per day — price, forty francs, or eight dollars per annum 
The Gonstitutionnel is believed to be the next in circulation, and is rated 
at fifteen or twenty thousand per day. These journals are both decided 
advocates of the Orleans dynasty, but opposed to the ministry of Guizot. 
Odillon Barrot is supposed to be the afflatus of the Siecle, and Thiers of 
the Conslitutionnel. 

The whole daily newspaper Press of Paris may, however, be divided 
into three classes — first, those supporting the Orleans dynasty; second, 
the advocates of the exiled Bourbons ; and third, the Republicans. One 
half, if not two thirds, of the whole circulation belongs to the Orleans 
dynasty, although the individual journals divide on the ministry. A 
fourth or more may belong to the legitimatists, or Carlists, and the 
remainder are the republicans. One of the daily journals adheres to 
Fourierism, or a sort of social democracy ; but it has a limited circula- 
tion, and more limited influence. 

The most profitable, popular, and widely circulated journals are those 
which occupy a sort of independent position, and are found generally in 
opposition to the ministry. The same feature marks the Press in Lon- 
don, and also in New York. This is a curious and remarkable fact in the 
history of modern Journalism in every free and civilized country. 

The income of the several journals of Paris varies as much as their 
circulation and influence. Out of nearly sixteen or more daily papers, 
not over three or four yield large and liberal revenues ; the rest are 
barely supported, and some of them sink capital supplied by speculators, 
who have particular purposes to effect. I have heard it asserted that 
those few which are profitable, yield from fifty thousand dollars (two 
hundred and fifty thousand francs) to eighty thousand dollars (or four 
hundred thousand francs) per annum, over and above expenses. I doubt 
if these estimates are not very much overrated. One or two of the Lon- 
don journals yield even a much larger revenue, and are managed on a 
far more scientific plan ; but I will speak of these when I get to London. 

Heretofore, the Parisian Press exercised a despotic power over public 
opinion and the departments, but this influence has been diminished of 
late years, by the establishment of well conducted papers in the large 
provincial towns. The provincial Press has very much increased of late 
years ; but it is doubtful if the establishment of the great railroad system, 
radiating from Paris to every point on the frontier, may not restore to 
Paris and its journals its old centralization of power in a higher and more 
aggravated form than ever yet existed. In fact, Journalism in Paris and 
Europe is in a state of progress, or transition, just as much as society, 
government, religion, and philosophy. 



EUROPEAN JOURNALISTS. ' 395 

Again, the manner, or mode by which the Parisian Press is conducted, 
is very different from that of London, but it has some features in com- 
mon with that of New York. There are probably over three hundred 
literary persons of all kinds, and every degree of talent and genius, 
attached to the Paris Press. They are generally composed of young 
adventurers from the provinces. Thiers, Guizot, and many other dis- 
tinguished men, commenced their career on the Press, either as contribu- 
tors of editorial articles, literary reviews, theatrical notices, or feuillelons, 
as the literary portion of the journal here is called. Each journal of 
importance has an editor, one or two sub-editors, besides several con- 
tributors, reporters, and critics, who furnish the diversified character of 
the sheet. These literary gentlemen go into the best society here, and I 
have seen some of them at Guizot's soirees, at the Tuileries, and in other 
high walks of life. In this respect, the estimation put upon literary 
merit is very different in Paris to what it is in London. In the latter 
metropolis, none but the professions — the army and navy — are considered 
fit to associate on equal terms with rank and power. Intellect and 
genius, if not set off with epaulettes or throat-cutting instruments, are 
consigned to the outer regions of human society, where no gentlemen are 
found. 

The editorial literature of Paris is a peculiar feature in itself. It differs 
from the same kind ©f literature in London and New York, in several 
important respects. The Press in Berlin, Vienna, and other capitals of 
Europe, has no literary, no peculiar character. These journals are the 
mere blind and paid advocates of the several governments. Mind is not 
allowed to ripen — and genius is banished as a disturber of the peace. 
Not so in Paris or London. Great freedom of thought exists, but it is a 
freedom regulated by power, and influenced by wealth. 

The Paris newspapers will, for months, luxuriate in wordy editorials, 
full of theoTy, fine sentiment, and well put language. They do not deal 
so much in practical writing, or diversified articles, as the London or 
New York Press does. The Spanish marriages, and the extinction of 
Cracow, have occupied the newspapers here nearly four months. These 
two topics have been turned and twisted again and again, into every pos- 
sible shape — the government journals defending, and the opposition 
attacking. The discussion is only just coming to a crisis, either in the 
retirement of Guizot or his retention. English or American readers 
would soon get sick, tired, and tormented by the eternal iteration of the 
same topic — marriage, marriage, marriage — Cracow, Cracow, Cracow ! 
The collection of foreign or domestic news — the publication of novel and 
extraordinary events, in any department of life, which generally form 



396 THE LONDON JOURNALS. 

the staple of English or American journals, are not eared for here — not 
attended to — and little heeded. A new idea on an old subject, no matter 
how odd, is more sought after than new and frequent occurrences, 
fe The ideal character of the French Press has grown of late years, in 
consequence of the dead calm in political affairs, produced by the firm 
hand of Louis Philippe, who is not only king, but his own minister, his 
own editor, and his own banker. There is little or no enterprise, in the 
shape of extended and rapid reports of public events, running of expresses, 
or any efforts which characterize the newspapers of London and New 
York. 

The editors, critics, and reporters of the Paris Press, write and pre- 
pare their articles with comparative leisure, in their little ornamented 
cabinets, and then go to work, varnish their boots, put on their white 
gloves, sally out to a restaurant to dinner, and close the evening at the 
theatre or the salon. There are few who possess the originating, 
energetic spirit which you sometimes find in London or New York. In 
one respect the Paris Press is peculiar. Its editorial columns, and all that 
influence, are regularly sold to the highest bidder, in favor of any kind 
of speculation — theatrical, financial, or political. The price of theatrical 
notices and similar things, is regulated on the same principles, precisely, 
which rule the price of beef and mutton. I have some curious facts on 
the subject. j. g. b. 

Concerning the London Press, Mr. Bennett wrote in July — 
about the time that a discussion took place between the ablest 
London journals, on the cheap system of newspapers — a pre- 
paratory discussion to the abolition of those stamp duties, which 
being entirely removed will tend more to republicanize Great 
Britain, and curtail the influence of the nobility and the privi- 
leged professions, than any act known to the history of the 
United Kingdom. 

" The daily newspaper Press in London is a vast and power- 
ful institution. Its influence and activity are generally directed 
against the old institutions of society, and in favor of reform 
and change. I do not think that a free newspaper Press and 
an hereditary nobility, or national church, can long exist 
quietly together in the same land. At this moment, the Lon- 
don newspaper Press is undergoing an internal revolution 
similar, to that which began in New York in 1835, and in Paris 



PRACTICAL VIEWS OF JOURNALISM. 397 

in 1836. A cheap daily Press is springing up in London which 
will put out of existence some of the old established journals. 
I allude particularly to the recent establishment and remarka- 
ble success of the Daily News. This journal was established 
more than a year ago, and is sold for three pence, while the 
old established papers still get five pence per copy. The con- 
sequence is, that the Daily News has already reached a circu- 
lation of over twenty thousand copies per day, being actually 
more than the circulation of the Times, while the other papers 
are declining daily. 

" The cheap newspaper Press of London is destined to achieve 
as great a victory as the like system has done in New York 
and Paris ; but while newspaper literature is in the midst of a 
great and important revolution that must elevate it to the 
highest condition of intellectual power, the general literature 
of the day seems to be sinking lower and lower all the time. 
Indeed, the literature of England seems to have degenerated 
into mere gossip. Hardly a book is published that is worth 
reading, unless it be on some practical science, or some new 
vein of history. The United States are in the midst of an age 
of action — of enterprise— by which national character is^ormed 
and fashioned. Here, in England, it is an age of lusury, of 
twattle, of gossip — but there is no original spirit of literature 
such as distinguished former ages in England. I believe that 
henceforth, the newspaper Press will, both in England and in 
France, develop a new and important character in the intel- 
lectual movements of the age." 

Mr. Bennett's views of Journalism are demonstrated so practi- 
cally in the Herald, that the reader only has to analyze its 
course to perceive what elements are necessary to constitute a 
popular journal. The question frequently is asked, why is the 
Herald so great a medium for advertisements ] The answer is 
easy. 

Many American journals are very pleasing to certain tastes 
and cliques. Individuals admire some particular journal more 
than they do the Herald — but while in a hotel a stray copy 
or two of a carefully written newspaper may be idolized by 



398 FINANCIAL CRISIS IN ENGLAND. 

persons of peculiar liabits of thought, and consequently will be 
folded up and treasured for further examination, nine persons 
out of ten will read the Herald under the same roof, and will 
no more neglect looking at it, avoiding other journals, than 
they would to eat their own breakfast and leave that of their 
neighbors undisturbed. 

Thus one Herald sometimes feeds fifty hungry readers, who 
devour its contents, and then proceed to their ordinary affairs. 
By their hurried reading they are sufficiently well acquainted, 
for all practical purposes, with the news and the advertise- 
ments. This fact is so well known to the community that 
people advertise in the Herald more generally than in other 
papers — although there are rivals to the Herald, such as the 
Times, the Tribune, and the Sun, which adopt the plan intro- 
duced into the Herald in 1847, to have new advertisements as a 
matter of interest both to readers and advertisers, and thereby 
secure a kind of public curiosity, which is not known to the 
valuable commercial papers of the New York metropolis, the 
Courier and Enquirer, the Express, the Journal of Commerce, 
the Commercial Advertiser, the Mirror, and the Evening Post. 

It is necessary now to leave Mr. Bennett, on his tour from 
London to Scotland in June, to visit his mother and sisters for 
the third or fourth time since he had become an American 
citizen, and notice the fact that in August and September he 
was busily employed in London and Liverpool in examining 
the condition of the financial troubles which had begun to 
shake the eredit of hundreds of mercantile firms and bankers in 
Great Britain, and some of the leading houses in the United 
States. 

On the subjects connected with these commercial disasters, 
he wrote lucidly and fully to the Herald, and performed a very 
important service to the two countries most interested in the 
sudden turn taken from undue " speculations in starvation" to 
bankruptcy ! The railway mania in England was about over, 
and the revulsion consequent upon the enormous amount of 
investments in railroad enterprises was adding to the difficulties 
caused by the excessive expansions of speculators in bread 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ELECTIONS. 399 

stuffs. Providence, however, was not to be balked in the retri- 
bution to be inflicted for the deaths of many hundred thousands 
of human beings sacrificed at the wheels of the commercial 
Juggernaut ; and as is usually the case in such instances of 
general speculation and subsequent reaction, some martyr was 
sought upon whose shoulders all the blame might be thrown. 
At length he was found in London — Mr. Hudson, the Railway 
King ! When he had been annihilated in 1849, speculation 
was supposed to be dead also, and thus terminated the turmoil 
which kept the journals busy till the dawn of the last half of 
the nineteenth century. 

The character of American elections is made a theme fre- 
quently to prove the demoralizing effect of democratic institu- 
tions. It will be quite within the scope and design of this 
volume to show, by the citation of facts, that the American 
continent is more highly favored than the old one in this par- 
ticular — and a letter from Mr. Bennett's hand, written in 
London, in August, 1847, will furnish some valuable passages, 
which, at the time they were written, were prophetical of the 
changing and changed condition of public opinion now so ap- 
parent to the readers of public journals. 

" Last week nearly all the elections of London took place. 
I have been much interested in comparing them to those of 
New York and the United States. The general system of con- 
stituents and candidates meeting face to face, is different from 
ours in New York, but they are like as two peas those in the 
Southern and Western states. Here every candidate can- 
vasses his district, speaks his own speeches, and tells his own 
story. Still they have committees, clubs, and all the machinery 
of a popular canvass, as we have. 

" They talk very much in Europe of the wild orgies of demo- 
cracy in the United States ; but in point of order, regularity, 
and decorum, there is as much difference between a popular 
election in London and New York, as can possibly be imagined 
— and all in favor of the latter city. We can poll fifty thou, 
sand votes in one day in New York, with less excitement, and 
more public order, than they can take five thousand in London 



400 POLITICAL BRIBERY. 

This is fact of the two capitals, and the same may be said to a 
greater extent of the two nations. 

" Such is the difference between the action of the American 
democracy and British monarchy. The correspondents of the 
French journals are astonished at the public order of an Eng- 
lish election. How much more would they be at that of an 
American election, if they dared to speak the truth ? 

" Of the exact results of this election, no one can yet tell. 
Thus far it has been a surprise to all — extraordinary and puz- 
zling in every point of view. The old Tory party have been 
much cut down ; but equally singular to relate, already half a 
dozen of the members of the Whig ministry have lost their 
election. 

" The principal element already developed, is the progress 
of popular principles, looking to the ballot and almost to uni- 
versal suffrage. O'Connor, the great radical leader, has de- 
feated Hobhouse, one of the ministers, for Nottingham. Liver- 
pool, Birmingham, Edinburgh, &c, have shown a strong 
disposition for more progress. Indeed it is now said, that the 
two old parties, Whig and Tory, have vanished for ever, and 
that the next House of Commons will present but two great 
elements — that of the ' finality party,' headed by Russell, with 
the old Whig and Tory aristocracy at his tail, and that of the 
movement with a hundred heads and no tail at all. 

" The declarations of many of the new members are very 
democratic — favorable, indeed, to the monarchy, as a pretty 
idea, represented in the person of Victoria ; but terribly hostile 
to the aristocracy, either in land or money. Thompson, the 
famous Abolition lecturer, once in the United States, is elected 
by a tremendous majority for one of the districts in London. 
He is thoroughly for the ballot and universal suffrage. It is 
true that Lord John Russell is elected in the city ; but it is 
said that he is indebted to Rothschild, who is on the same 
ticket, for this result. It is positively asserted, that twenty- 
five thousand pounds have been expended by the Rothschild 
in securing this result. In fact, corruption, the actual buying 
and selling of votes, exists almost in a complete state of organi 



REFORMERS IN ENGLAND. 401 

zation in many places — almost as much so as it does in the 
electoral system of France. In the city election here, it is 
said that the ' long-shore men,' as they are called, were bought 
up by the friends of the great bankers, at the rate of five 
pounds a-piece to twenty-five pounds a-piece, according to 
their greediness or avarice. Many of the districts in various 
parts of the empire have been up for sale to the highest bid- 
der, and their agents have been peddling seats in the Commons 
for weeks all over the land. These facts have been stated in 
Parliament and in the newspapers — no one denies them." 

Mr. Bennett entered somewhat into the philosophy of this 
subject towards the close of the letter from which these ex- 
tracts have been made, although he did not show, except by a 
broad portraiture of facts, how the money-power was the great 
competitor for public office. The truth, however, as is demon- 
strated by the course of public opinion in Great Britain, was 
revealed with no little clearness. Thus did Mr. Bennett speak 
of the political parties. 

" The Whig and Tory aristocracy, now joined by a portion of 
the great banking and moneyed interest, are opposed to all 
further reform, and have expected to organize a system of cor- 
ruption for managing the eight hundred thousand electors of 
this country, as the two hundred thousand of France are 
wielded. This system has been growing and spreading for the 
last few years. It has been gradually bringing the two old 
factions of Whig and Tory together. The spirit of the age, in 
the shape of a further extension of the electoral franchise, of 
free trade in land, of the vote by ballot, of separation of church 
and state — the spirit of the age, in these forms, is gradually 
gathering force and organization, and a new party of progress 
will be thrown up in the next Parliament that will shake the 
aristocracy to the heart. When these ideas shall have become 
strong enough for action in Parliament, there will be a coalition 
between the old landed aristocracy and the mixed aristocracy 
to put down the reformers, and bribery and influence will be 
their principal weapons at the poll. 

" This will be a great and a long struggle ; for in England 



402 RETURN FROM EUROPE. 

reform has terrible obstacles to overcome. As yet, England 
will go on for years in her present humdrum pace. Parliament 
will try to legislate away all their social evils ; but all legisla- 
tion will be fruitless to relieve the social evils of Ireland, or 
any part of the country. 

" The aristocracy maintain three hundred thousand servants, 
two hundred thousand horses, five hundred thousand dogs, one 
hundred thousand grouse, and. five hundred thousand game of 
all kinds, all to minister to their pride and pleasure. These 
men, beasts, and birds, consume the food of idleness, which 
would feed the starving Irish and all others of the lower 
class. 

" Here is the dangerous condition of England ; a condition 
that is increasing in magnitude every year, and reaches a crisis 
whenever any of the crops fail. It is a social evil, which mere 
ordinary legislation cannot reach. The only natural avenue to 
a remedy is through universal suffrage and the ballot; but, 
although this idea is developed stronger at the present elections 
than ever before, it is yet far from any point of success. In a 
population of twenty-seven millions, which is nearly the num- 
ber of the three kingdoms, only about eight hundred thousand 
are electors, while forty-three thousand persons hold all the 
land of the empire, including mountains, hills, rocks, rivers, and 
moors. The government alone claim a property in the sun and 
heavens above, and accordingly levy a heavy tax on the light 
of day. In fact, one pays for the very air that is breathed. 
Yet the modern Englishman talks very much of his liberty, 
and affects to look with superciliousness on the democracy of 
America." 

Mr. Bennett, after an absence of more than a year, returned 
with his family in the Autumn of 1847, arriving at Boston, in 
the Cambria steamer, on the 19th of October. Immediately he 
was found at his post in New York, where he was greeted by 
troops of friends who came to pay their respects to him, and to 
welcome him home. The letters which he had written during 
his sojourn abroad were esteemed as the most valuable contri- 
butions he had ever made to the literature of Journalism ; fo? 



EDITORIAL STUDIES. 403 

they were endowed with an eminently practical spirit, and 
were not diminished in value by any of those personal predi- 
lections or aversions which always more or less affect the judg- 
ment of an editor, who is within the sound of gossip and of the 
whisperings of selfishness. These letters had a general inter- 
est, and were not addressed to any little clique, or constructed 
for the purpose of arousing some rival to reply, that the public 
might indulge in the sport of a controversy. They were based 
upon calm studies of the taste, temper, dispositions, designs, 
and desires, of the Old World, embraced a great variety of 
subjects, and were calculated to excite an almost boundless 
curiosity in all classes of society. 

It is quite certain, therefore, that this visit to Europe was 
useful to the Herald, from the fact that it had brought its 
Editor to the knowledge of many new readers, who were at- 
tracted by the editorial correspondence. It was not this alone, 
though, that proved valuable. The studies of the Press in 
France and England had suggested to Mr. Bennett the possi- 
bility of improving his own establishment. Only a few days 
elapsed after his arrival in New York, when he gave orders for 
the construction of new machinery, so as to supply at an early 
hour, and with greater promptitude, his rapidly augmenting 
patrons. As at every other point in the history of the Herald, 
the question was not how to curtail, but how to expend ; how 
to expand ; how to promote the interests of the journal ; how 
to increase its value, without any enhancement of cost to its 
readers. 



404 ZACHARY TAYLOR. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 



The year 1848, memorable in the progress of peoples and 
governments, justified by its events the prophecies which Mr. 
Bennett had made in his letters, from various European 
capitals in the preceding year. 

The whole world was excited, as it were, by a general spirit 
that pervaded the atmosphere. Powerful governments and 
seemingly secure monarchs trembled on their thrones. 
Peoples began to feel their power, and even in the United 
States the two great political parties quailed and bent before 
the independent will of the masses of society. In 1847 
Zachary Taylor was nominated for the Presidency by a spon- 
taneous meeting of Pennsylvanians, held at Reading, and the 
Whig, members of Congress in February, 1848, proposed to 
nominate him, also, through a convention which met at Phila- 
delphia. Mr. Bennett had named him, however, for President 
as early as May, 1846, and in 1849 General Taylor was 
inaugurated as President of the United States, having been 
chosen by the voice of the people, who virtually forced the old 
General into the highest seat of distinction. That the Herald 
had great influence in this result has never been doubted. Even 
as early as 1840, in a letter from Saratoga, Mr. Bennett 
designated General Taylor as a conspicuous man for the nation. 

In Europe there was a mighty change going on everywhere. 
The world found Lamartine, in France, at the head of a host 
of republicans — Louis Philippe having fled with his family to 
Dover, alarm filled the breasts of the privileged orders, while 
the hearts of the people were stimulated to claim benefits 
at the hands of their rulers. The Elector of Hesse-Cassel 
grants the demands of his people. The King of Wurtemberg 



EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS. 405 

gives his subjects the liberty of the Press, while the King of 
Prussia promises the same thing. The Grand Duke of Saxe 
Weimar promises important reforms. King Leopold of Belgium 
will be glad to acquiesce in any decision that his ministers will 
maintain. The Duke of Nassau concedes the right of the 
people to arm under their own leaders, grants liberty to the 
Press, is contented with a German Parliament, allows the right 
of public meeting, and is in favor of religious liberty. At 
Munich the same spirit reigns. Vienna is subjected to the 
same kind of influence. Metternich resigns and hastens away. 
The Emperor grants freedom to the Press and the establish- 
ment of a national guard. At Berlin freedom and fighting are 
the characteristics of the hour. The King of Holland yields 
to the public voice. Indeed, all the principalities and powers 
of the earth abandon some of their time-honored tyrannies, and 
the whole civilized world is alive to the fact, that human power 
is based upon the most unstable foundation. Even Asia 
vibrates with Reform. Before the end of the year, Hungary 
declares itself an independent republic, and the Pope of Rome, 
after remaining a prisoner in his palace for several days, leaves 
the Eternal City in disguise. In Austria, Ferdinand abdicates 
the throne, and his brother Francis Charles renounces the suc- 
cession. His son is proclaimed Emperor. Political turmoil 
and commotion mark the entire area of Europe, Russia alone 
escaping any severe shock from the electric revolutionary 
spirit. Even Ireland stands to her feet, enlisting the hopes of 
freedom, although her energy is as brief as it is useless. 

The Herald predicted the Revolution in France several days 
before the arrival of the news, and prepared the public mind 
for that unexpected event. Its view of the steps taken with 
respect to the Reform Banquets was correct to the very 
letter of the result. Such subjects as these ever engage the 
powers of every studious journalist, and the comments which 
appeared in the Herald — although minute points, which are 
sometimes more important than great events, were frequently 
overlooked — were distinguished by a reliance on the great 
cardinal principles of human government. 



406 DISPOSITION OF BLACK MAIL. 

Occasionally, the sanguine and ardent temper of Mr. Ben- 
nett caused him to anticipate a greater result for the republican 
spirit than history has sanctioned, yet, on the whole, it must be 
said that an almost uniform sagacity characterized the columns 
of the Herald. It is not to be supposed that any two minds, 
totally free even from all party bias, would agree upon every 
point involved in the history of a revolution, so that in compli- 
menting .Mr. Bennett's skill, both here and elsewhere, it is not 
always to be construed into a complete approval of the politi- 
cal maxims which he chooses in order to strengthen his positions. 
Mr. Bennett's mind is very different in its application to an 
intricate subject from that of one who is in the habit of reason- 
ing both synthetically and analytically ; and hence while his 
general tact and judgment as a popular journalist may be 
admired, he still might be criticised with severity, if he were 
on trial as a metaphysical or political philosopher. Mr. Ben- 
nett's object, however, has been invariably to distinguish him- 
self as a public journalist — and it is only in view of that design 
that he is examined in these pages. Had he set himself up for 
anything different, it would have been fair to treat him with 
more critical penetration than is necessary to unravel his 
character as the Editor of the Herald. 

In January, 1848, the Astor Place Opera House which was 
first opened on the 22d of November, 1847, was the scene of 
professional jealousies which became themes for public com- 
mentaries. The artists and their friends published cards, and 
in a subsequent season of Mr. Fry's direction, out of the 
conflict between the singers and the manager, came the cele- 
brated libel suit, already sufficiently alluded to, brought by 
Edward P. Fry against Mr. Bennett. While the war was 
going on, a short article was sent by an unknown hand to Mr. 
Bennett, in favor of Signor Benedetti. Accompanying it, was a 
bank note for one hundred dollars — a small sum for a word in 
a journal said to have little influence ! Mr. Bennett stated 
the facts, and how the " Black Mail" was disposed of may be 
learned by the ensuing correspondence. 



A DONATION. 407 

Thursday, January 6sh, 1848. 

Office of the New York Herald. 
Sir : I transmit to you the enclosed one hundred dollars which I 
would beg you to be so kind as to dispose of in a manner you may deem 
most judicious, to the benefit and assistance of such public charitable 
institution or institutions of our city, as you may judge most deserving. 
I would respectfully suggest the two Orphan Asylums of the city. 

T am, Sir, your obedient servant, 

James Gordon Bennett. 
To His Honor W. V. Brady, 

Mayor of the City of New York. 



Mayor's Office, New York, January 7th, 1848. 

Dear Sir : I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, enclosing 
the sum of one hundred dollars, for distribution among such charitable 
institutions as I may select. 

In accordance with your suggestions, and with my own inclination, I 
have divided your generous donation equally between the Protestant 
Half Orphan Asylum, and the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum — two 
institutions eminently deserving encouragement. With my best wishes 
for your continued health, and that prosperity which enables you to 
distribute thus liberally to the poor and the friendless, 

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

W. V. Brady. 
To James Gordon Bennett, Esq., 

Editor of the N. Y. Herald. 

Such is not a solitary instance of the appropriation to 
charitable objects of funds sent to the Herald with a view to 
obtain the favor of its columns — and it is well known that 
where the severest censures have been expressed by Mr. Ben- 
nett upon individuals and upon public companies, the hostility 
has been caused by the silly attempt to purchase the good-will 
of the Editor — as if a journal with a net income of at least one 
hundred thousand dollars per annum (one fifth of its receipts) 
in 1855, could gain anything by a course of action that would 
destroy its character and influence. 



408 NEW CODE OF NEW YORK. 

Many a man has entered the editorial rooms to find his prof- 
fered bribe powerless, and not a few have been requested to 
vacate the premises with their flashy schemes still in embry- 
onic incertitude, till the Herald has exposed the knavery of 
the parties, basing its action upon the fact that those who 
wish to obtain favor by bribery seldom have a thoroughly 
good cause. A man must be a fool to suppose that a journal, 
which affords enormous profits, needs any money not honestly 
earned in its business department, or that any paper so exact- 
ing funds can be influential with the public. 

In the early part of this year, also, the Herald published the 
treaty between Mexico and the United States, together with 
other documents obtained by Mr. Nugent, one of the correspon- 
dents of the journal at Washington. Mr. Nugent was confined 
by the action of the Senate, which followed the forms and 
customs of the British Parliament on this question of privilege. 
It was a very important case, and will not be the last of its 
kind. It naturally excited much discussion at the time. Mr. 
Nugent was released in a few days from his confinement, 
through the exertions of Mr. Bennett, who in a visit to Wash- 
ington took such steps as tended to settle the affair, which was 
agitated with a view to injure Mr. Buchanan, then Secretary 
of State. The history of the whole business would occupy too 
much space to be cited in this volume. 

There were numerous highly interesting subjects, in addition 
to those already named, before the people of the United States 
in 1848. Among these may be named a few of the most pro- 
minent which Mr. Bennett discussed with his usual fervor and 
ability. 

The new Code of practice in the courts of law of New York 
was a theme full of incidents and illustrations, which was 
treated with much skill. It had been prepared by several 
legal gentlemen and adopted by the Legislature. Its chief 
features are the abolition of all forms of action, the former 
system of special pleading, the distinction between law and 
equity suits. Every proceeding by one party against another 
became a civil action. There was no distinction between a 



THE GOLD DISCOVERIES. • 409 

law suit and a chancery suit. The first step is the complaint, 
to which the defendant puts in an answer. Then the plaintiff 
files a replication, and thus the pleadings become complete, and 
the cause is at issue, ready for trial by jury. One point merits 
particular notice. Each party calls on the other and examines 
him as a witness, the plaintiff or defendant being put upon his 
oath to answer in any examination. Some curious results have 
attended this New Code, but its main features seem to be 
retained to the present day with no little satisfaction. 

In February, the first discovery of gold in California took 
place at Suter's Mill. This commenced the revolution of com- 
merce in the United States. In the November following, emi- 
gration to California was general throughout the country, as it 
will be again towards another region, at an early day, when a 
secret has been divulged. On the 11th of December the first 
meeting in favor of a provisional government in California was 
held at the Pueblo de San Jose. From this point the brilliant 
progress of the Pacific state may be traced down to the present 
moment. It has had an immense effect upon the whole civi . 
lized world, and upon the very destiny of nations. 

Upon the discovery of gold in California, and the consequent 
action of the people of the country, Mr. Bennett wrote with 
great warmth, and yet with admirable discretion. He con- 
tinued his examinations of the subject till the excitement had 
died away in some measure ; and while he aided the cause, he 
also pointed out the probable effects of the great emigration to 
the Pacific, injurious and beneficial, so as to command the 
admiration of the adventurers and of the mercantile public. 
The views which he entertained in the course of his discussions 
were marked by his customary sagacity, and in some of his 
articles he was prophetical to the very letter on the results of 
this stupendous discovery. Did space permit, articles on the 
influence of the gold on the currency of the world might be 
appended here, which would show that he studied this subject 
with uncommon care • and skill. There are few men who are 
capable of understanding the true practical relations of the 
precious metals to the labor of a country, and hence the absurd 

J8 



410 THE COLLINS STEAMER?. 

propositions which merchants themselves are most forward in 
making, to jeopardize the interests of their own class and of 
those upon whose labors they depend entirely for their profits. 
The whole question of producers and non-producers, as simple as 
it is, does not appear to he better understood by the intelligence 
of the nineteenth century than it was by Moses and the people 
over whose spiritual and temporal welfare he presided. Shy- 
lock significantly intimates this in his allusions to Jacob, in his 
first interview with the merchant of the Kralto. 

Cheap postage, and the postal treaty between Great Britain 
and the United States established this year, were other topics 
of public interest on which the Herald had much to say. In 
the dramatic world, the controversy between Forrest and 
Macready, which ended in the riot of May 10th, 1849, at the 
Astor Place Opera House, also had its share of attention. On 
that occasion one hundred and forty-four persons of the* military 
were wounded, and many valuable lives were lost by the 
unfortunate occurrence. Mr. Macready had been invited to 
perform Macbeth, and a mob, encouraged by the presence of 
thousands of spectators, attempted to force and burn the 
building. The police could not resist the assailants, and the 
discharge of musketry, with the fatal consequences, was the 
result. TThen man reflects that this sacrifice of life ensued 
from a mere personal quarrel, it should prove beneficial to 
reflecting minds. Animosity between individuals is usually 
caused by a lack of that charity which belongs alone to noble 
natures, — elevating trifles into important acts. From a little 
rill it swells into raging torrents. At first it may be forded 
with little difficulty — but, if not passed and forgotten, the 
strongest may not escape its destructive power. 

Two of the Collins steamers were on the stocks in 1848, 
ready to be launched. To the establishment of this splendid 
enterprise, Mr. Bennett lent all possible aid ; and it is a grati- 
fication to know that the success of a fleet of steamers of such 
importance to our national character has been commensurate 
with the hopes of the originators. Latterly, much valuable 
time has been lost to the country in discussing the propriety of 



WALTER AND BENNETT. 411 

assisting further, by Federal appropriation, this great arm of 
commerce — but there appears no reason why the patronage 
that can be given by the government to such an enterprise 
should be withheld from the mere love of placing party power 
in opposition to every possible interest in the country. The 
legislator who has no better reason for impeding the success of 
the Collins steamers than can be drawn from the arguments of 
a vexatious political clique, ought to be remembered as an enemy 
to the people at large. Mr. Bennett has embraced always 
enlarged and comprehensive views of this question, and while it 
involves no objections beyond those which have been urged by 
spoilsmen, all sensible American citizens will rejoice that the 
Herald lends its influence in a cause at once so excellent and 
so meritorious. 

This chapter might be much extended with full notices of 
Mr. Bennett's articles on the European conflicts and changes — 
on the position of those countries with the politics of which he 
had become familiar, but the design of these pages will be best 
secured by now presenting, as an appropriate summing up of 
all that has been recorded, an article which will convey with 
brevity much of the spirit and temper which have characterized 
all that has preceded it. 

" There is no journal in the world, according to our humble 
opinion, that exerts so powerful and so wide-spread an 
influence upon the public mind as the New York Herald. It 
combines all the elements of useful, high-toned Journalism in a 
most remarkable degree. Its founder, proprietor, and editor is 
a wonderful man. The advent of Walter marked a new era 
in Journalism in England, and Bennett's advent has produced a 
similar result in the United States. 

" Walter has had and still has imitators, but they have never 
been able to come up to the model. So of Bennett ; he stands 
alone in his greatness in this country. While their imitators 
have never been able to reach the platform which these two 
extraordinary men occupy, yet their exertions in trying to 
come up to their models have not been without good effect in 
helping to purify Journalism from its weakness, and to elevate 



412 LONDON TIMES AND NEW YORK HERALD. 

it to a sound and healthful condition. The great curse of the 
public Press has been, and is, its puerility. Walter and Bennett 
have taught it to think and speak as an independent man, 
acknowledging no other authority but that of God. 

" Genius is like the diamond. It is a precious stone of great 
value. It does not abound. The world seems to produce just 
enough of it to benefit mankind. All the geniuses who have ever 
lived would scarcely be numerous enough to fill the floor of 
the Rotunda in the Capitol — but every branch of human art, 
every department of human intelligence, has its genius to give 
form and life to its being. 

" Journalism is a new science — a new department of human 
art. It never had master spirits to breathe upon it, and mould 
it into perfect form, until Walter and Bennett made their 
appearance upon the stage of life. The mission of Walter is at 
an end. His works follow him. The London Times is the 
perfect representative of Europe. It is the daily daguerreotype 
of European manners and European thought. It is the face 
of the Eastern half of the globe, in which you may read the 
features of the Eastern world in all its workings, all its changes. 

" The mission of Bennett is not at an end. It is a continuous 
work. The New York Herald is now the representative of 
American manners, of American thought. It is the daily 
daguerreotype of the heart and soul of the model republic. It 
delineates with faithfulness the American character in all its 
rapid changes and ever varying hues. The dominant charac- 
ter of European journals is Walterism — that of American 
journals is Bennettism. But not only is the New York Herald 
the daily portraiture of the mind, the imagination, the thought 
of the United States — it is the reflector of the inert mind of 
Mexico and the South American republics. It gives out the 
feelings of British America, too. It may be said with perfect 
justice, therefore, that the New York Herald is the face of the 
Western half of the earth, whose lineaments portray with 
fidelity the inward workings of this new world, now in progress 
of being civilized by the indefatigable Yankees and their 
institutions. 



INDIVIDUAL LABORS. 413 

" The London Times taught the nations to estimate the 
value of time by its energy in bringing to the centre of the 
commercial world, the latest intelligence from all quarters. It 
had its ships and its steamers on every sea. It outstripped the 
British government in the great work. It frequently gave the 
first information to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the 
battles which the soldiers of the Empire fought, or won. The 
news of the battle of Navarino was laid before the astonished 
Commons in the columns of the London Times. The master 
of events, it could easily take the next step and become the 
director of them in the empire ; and it did take that step. It 
has, in its day, given, and it continues to give, by operating upon 
public sentiment, a direction to the public policy of the British 
government, that is the just fruit of such powerful Journalism. 

" The New York Herald has been preparing the way for the 
same results. Nay, it has already exited an influence upon 
sentiment that has been felt from one end of the Union to the 
other. Its fearless discussions of political measures, and its bold 
expositions of the selfish schemes of politicians, have done great 
good, and have forwarded the interests of the country in an 
eminent degree. Its money articles have done more to rescue 
honest people from the embrace of corrupt banks than all the 
legislation that has ever taken place. Those articles alone 
have won for Mr. Bennett an immortality that no envy, no 
malice, can take away. All of them of any value were the 
effusions of his own powerful pen. Others, it is true, have 
claimed the merit of writing them, but without the least right to 
do so. Even when he has employed men to attend to this 
department of his journal, it was Mr. Bennett's genius that 
struck put the line of argument to be pursued, and gave the 
points to be discussed. Under the exposition of his early money 
articles, all of which were the work of his own pen, the bank- 
ing system of the United States gave way and tottered to its 
fall. He has done more than all other men in the country to 
teach the people that banking is nothing more than a system 
of trading upon credit, the chief benefit of which accrues to the 
non-laboring classes. 



414 THE PROPHECY ON THIS BOOK. 

" But, as we have said, the Herald has scarcely yet laid the 
foundation for its permanent influence upon public men and 
public things in this country. It is daily and hourly launching 
forth upon new and untried seas, and its recent achievement 
in making the Electric Telegraph minister to its mastery of 
events, is without parallel. To lay before the thousands of 
readers of New York city the speeches of Senators in the 
United States Senate the morning after they are delivered 
makes Washington a suburb of New York, and enables tht 
public mind, while the thoughts of the speakers are yet warm, 
to canvass and pass judgment upon the ideas and suggestions 
of their servants, with a facility hitherto unknown to the world. 
Yet this has been done by the Herald — but it is only the begin- 
ning of this new enterprise. Before the close of the present 
half century (1848), we predict that the New York Herald will 
be the perfect mirror q§, events in this vast confederacy, acting 
and reacting upon the public mind with a power that cannot 
be estimated by the data before us. 

" But the most remarkable thing about the New York Herald 
is its origin, as compared with that of the London Times. The 
founder of the former came to this country a poor Scotch boy, 
without much book education. He was industrious, and by 
severe labor, in which he was frequently imposed upon by 
heartless newspaper employers in the most shameful manner, 
he managed to keep body and soul together, and to train him- 
self unconsciously for the mission to which he has been called. 
There are those who still enjoy the credit of his literary 
labors ; but the time will come when they will be stripped of 
their borrowed plumage. 

" Driven from post to pillar, Mr. Bennett founded the New 
York Herald in 1835. For the first few days, the enterprise 
threatened to fail; for he had no money capital. Things, 
however, took a favorable turn, and the Herald went up, and 
has been going up ever since, until the proprietor is now a mil- 
lionaire, and promises to be a second Astor. His genius was his 
capital ; but the conflict of this mental capital with the money 
capital of New York was terrible through a series of years. 



TRIUMPHS L\ JOURNALISM COMPARED. 415 

" Mr. Bennett fearlessly arrayed himself against the corrup- 
tions of society and hoarded wealth, and they in turn strove to 
crush him day by day. Every lie that could be dragged from 
the bottomless pit of diabolism was put afloat against him. He 
was hunted from society* as though he was a wild-beast ; but 
he kept the even tenor of his way, and lived down the misre- 
presentations of malice and envy. Ever and anon, however, the 
powers of darkness were let loose upon his head in new forms. 
Men were found desperate enough to violate the law and assail 
his person. Mr. Bennett has outlived those ruffian assaults, 
and stands now immeasurably above his assailants in all the 
attributes of human excellence. He bore the buffets of the 
en^y and malice that sought to kill him with a practical sub- 
mission that puts to shame the professions of loud-mouthed 
Christians, and he has been rewarded for his Christian conduct 
by the approbation of all good men — of all men whose esteem 
is worth having. His enemies are now under his feet, and yet 
he remembers mercy. 

" How different the rise of Walter ! He began Journalism 
with thousands of money at his command, and he expended 
upon the Times three hundred and fifty thousand dollars before 
it began to yield the first penny in return. Great was his con- 
flict, too, against the powers of money and the secret institu- 
tions of his country ; but he fought them to advantage. They 
sought not to blacken his character, because they knew the 
effort would be in vain. He triumphed over combinations 
against him that would have crushed any other man, and he 
lived to see the end of all his hopes — his newspaper the fourth 
power in the government of Great Britain. 

" Mr. Bennett's career and struggles are infinitely more 
instructive than those of Mr. Walter. The former rose from 
poverty by the mighty force of his genius, and conquered the 
allied powers of money and corrupt society that sought to 
destroy him. The latter was already in position, and overcame 
resistance from among his own fellows. Both have rendered 
society the greatest good ; both have established the science 
of Journalism ; but each worked from different points d' appui. 



416 CHARACTERISTIC STYLE. 

" It is not in his writings alone that Mr. Bennett's genius as 
a journalist is exhibited. It is seen in the powerful corps of 
writers which he has assembled around him in the conduct of 
his journal. He enjoys the facility, in a remarkable degree, 
of detecting in other men the proper qualifications for the 
labors which he requires at their hands. This was Mr. Wal- 
ter's great forte also. But it is Mr. Bennett's articles which 
give character to his journal. 

" He is the founder of a new school of writing. His articles 
are complete essays in themselves. They have a beginning, a 
middle, and an ending. They are characterized by a dashing 
fearlessness that harmonizes with the tone of the American 
mind. They are not collections of words merely ; but are 
bundles of just thoughts, sound arguments, and practical con- 
clusions. Their charm lies in the purity of their style. There 
is a vein of cheerfulness running through them that is delight- 
fully refreshing. Mr. Bennett's style of writing is peculiar to 
himself. He may be said to be the founder of a school of 
writing, whose chief characteristic is simplicity, and whose basis 
is common sense." 



ZACHARY TAYLOR. 417 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



In March, 1849, Zachary Taylor was inaugurated President 
of the United States. He was inducted into office at a period 
in the history of the country when mercantile enterprise was 
at its height, and the entire intellect of the people was aroused 
to an unusual examination of all the great political, social, and 
moral issues, which had been growing interesting to individual 
minds. The stimulation that operated upon the people was 
generated by a variety of circumstances, not the least of which 
were the influences to be ascribed to the Mexican war, and the 
settlement of California by gold-hunters. 

A quarter of a century had effected mighty changes. The 
people in that passage of years had not felt so much their own 
strength, and their real power through the elective franchise, as 
when they struck a blow at the two chief political parties, by 
their action in the great Federal election. The results of that 
experience are not yet completed, and the future will present 
still further evidences of the determination of the people to 
overturn the political machinery of which the old party 
journals are the prominent engineers. 

This condition of the public mind has been caused in a great 
measure by improved Journalism, which has stimulated to 
activity numberless minds in every portion of the country. 
When the public Press did not report the speeches of citizens, 
there was little incitement to address audiences. It was soon 
ascertained, however, under the changes wrought by the rapid 
improvements introduced into newspapers, that entire com- 
munities, and, indeed, the whole nation, could be electrified by 
popular eloquence. This fact brought into the field of oral 

18* 



418 ANNEXATION OF CUBA. 

literature thousands of speakers, including many females, who 
have had a great influence upon the public mind. This fact 
has proved very troublesome to the old political parties ; for 
they know not where to look for the dangers which beset 
them, and are chagrined and mortified frequently by witnessing 
some unexpected outbreak of popular feeling, in a quarter sup- 
posed to be wholly indifferent to the political agitation of the 
hour. Thus Journalism and popular eloquence go hand in 
hand throughout the country, exciting men to thought and 
action, not in the old beaten track of political dictators, but on 
the broad ground of justice and the common welfare. It may 
be said truly, that the intellect of the people sways on every 
public question, or, if occasionally defeated, will be certain to 
triumph eventually. This being the case, what a sublime 
spectacle of democratic government does this country present 
to the world, and with continued improvement, what an im- 
portant destiny for the human race is in store through the 
examples on the American continent ! 

The annexation of Cuba was a favorite theme during the 
first year of President Taylor's administration. The subject 
was agitated warmly at the time the American troops were 
about to return from Mexico, and many persons who sympa- 
thized with the republican spirit existing in Cuba were anxious 
to excite popular opinion in favor of giving liberty to that 
beautiful island. President Taylor issued a proclamation 
against those who were supposed to be fitting out an expedi- 
tion for the purpose of revolutionizing this Spanish dependency. 
Mr. Bennett sustained the government in its course, and con- 
tinued to do so down to the period when Lopez and his band 
were captured, after their second landing upon the Cuban 
coast. The warnings, however, were not heeded, and secret 
conclaves projected the design which terminated so disastrously 
to many who were engaged in it. 

For one or two years the agitation was kept up, particularly 
in the South-western part of the United States, till the whole 
country became alarmed at the progress of the feeling against 
Cuba. It is easy to believe, had the Herald countenanced 



FAVOR TO SOUTHERN INTERESTS. 419 

the men engaged in this unlawful arming for the invasion of 
Spanish territory, that it would have contributed largely 
towards bringing about a very different result. Its course, 
however, was one which was highly approved. Its opposition 
to the wishes of the multitude was based upon the fact that 
our treaties with Spain called upon the intelligence of the 
country to frown upon any attempt to impair their sanctity. 

Mr. Bennett, during the whole of the exciting period when 
the Cuban invasion was planned and carried forward, watched 
the course of events with great earnestness and apprehension. 
It was barely possible that the invaders would triumph — and 
then the whole face of history would have changed in an 
instant. Even this possibility, however, did not deter him 
from using the strongest language against those who were act- 
ing illegally against a country with which the American 
government was at peace. . He followed up the subject in 1850 
with great attention, but on this theme more will be said in the 
next chapter, where a few interesting facts will find their 
appropriate place and comment. 

It has been said that Mr. Bennett has paid court to the 
South in a spirit unbecoming a Northern man. Nothing is 
more false than this. He certainly did not flatter Southern 
men in the Cuban project ; and in 1849 the Southern Conven- 
tion met with no favor at his hands. What Southern project 
at war with the harmony or interests of the country at large 
has been advocated by the Herald ? Not one ; and yet the 
enemies of this journal often speak of it as in favor of the 
South. This is a misrepresentation. The Herald has a cosmo- 
politan and a national character. In politics it has the consti- 
tution of the United States as its chart in every storm, and it 
maintains itself between the fiery zeal of the Southern States 
on the one side, and the heated uncharitableness of the 
Northern States on the other. This can be easily proved. 
The Herald is just to all interests, and in that lies its strength 
throughout the country. It appeals to no sectional feelings. 
It flatters no peculiar interests. If it pursued a contrary 
course, its power would be abridged— for a journal which will 



420 HORACE GREELEY'S TESTIMONY. 

sacrifice the property of citizens to what, abstractly- considered, 
is deemed to be principle, cannot enjoy a general popularity. 
Individual minds may admire the talent which arrays bold 
arguments in favor of a revolution for a pure abstract morality, 
aside from the correlative moral and just considerations which 
attend its practical establishment, but the general sense of 
mankind is averse to doing any wrong to communities upon 
grounds merely ideal. The Herald's universality of sympathy 
for the interests of the greatest number of citizens constitutes 
its strength as a public journal. This element has triumphed 
in it, till it receives an extent of patronage from advertisers 
unknown to any other journal. In 1848 it issued from three 
and a half to five columns of advertisements only, but in 1855 
it is enriched by from eighteen to twenty -four columns, which 
are condensed into the smallest possible compass — the receipts 
for which range from one hundred thousand to one hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars per annum. It cannot be said justly 
that this result has been accomplished by a single journalist — 
who commenced his career with five hundred, or five hundred 
and fifty dollars, which it is asserted was the exact sum- — who 
has devoted his talents and sympathies to any particular section 
of the Union. On the contrary, it proves that the manner in 
which the Herald has been conducted meets with the general 
approval of the intelligent and comprehensive intellects of 
every state in the Union, and of many highly distinguished 
minds in foreign countries. 

It is true that those who have not a liberal spirit towards 
the opinion of others may find much to condemn in any journal, 
but it does not follow, because a man would censure another's 
taste or judgment, that he should condemn him utterly also. 
A great deal of fault has been found with Mr. Greeley for his 
evidence given before a committee of the House of Commons, 
in 1851, as it exhibits a singular state of feeling towards 
the New York Herald. 

Mr. Greeley's evidence was given before a committee whose 
object was to investigate the propriety of removing the stamp 
duty from British newspapers. It must be confessed that Mr. 



COBDEN AND THE HERALD. 421 

Greeley never displayed publicly less judgment, or more fully 
allowed his prejudices to run riot with his discretion, 

" Chairman. Are there any papers published in New York, 
or in other parts, which may be said to be of an obscene or 
immoral character ?" 

" Mr. Greeley. We call the New York Herald a very 
bad paper — those who do not like it ; but that is not the cheap- 
est." 

Mr. Greeley made a very remarkable qualification in this 
very strange reply to a very simple question. He might have 
cited the Tribune with as much propriety. Certainly, the 
Herald never contained such gross language as Mr. Greeley 
himself had applied to William Cullen Bryant, a few months 
before, in the Tribune. 

" You lie, villain ! wilfully, wickedly, basely lie ! The 
scanty pretext formerly trumped up by garbling for this 
calumny has long since been exploded, and whoever now 
repeats it is an unblushing scoundrel." 

A little more of this evidence will be useful, because it will 
show how difficult it is for even an habitually frank and 
generous mind to be fair towards a popular rival. Mr. Cob- 
den's remark, while it compliments the Herald and rebukes 
Mr. Greeley's testimony, shows what British statesmen think 
of Mr. Bennett's- journal. 

" Mr. Ewart. Is scurrility or personality common in the 
publications of the United States ?" 

" Mr: Greeley. It is not common ; it is much less frequent 
than it was ; but is not absolutely unknown." 

"Mr. Cobden. What is the circulation of the Neiv York 
Herald ?" 

" Mr. Greeley. Twenty-Jive thousand, I believe." 

" Mr. Cobden. Is that an influential paper in America?" 

"Mr. Greeley. I think not!" • 

" Mr. Cobden. It has a higher reputation in Europe, pro~ 
bably, than at home /" 

" Mr. Greeley. A certain class of journals in this country 
find it their interest or pleasure to quote it a good deal." 



422 MR. BENNETT AND GENERAL TAYLOR. 

President Taylor's cabinet and Mr. Bennett, near the close 
of 1849, were engaged in a kind of controversy which was 
betrayed in the organs of the administration at first, and soon 
was made clear by the publications in the Herald. 

Mr. Bennett having censured Mr. Clayton for his course on 
certain public questions, the ire of several journalists friendly to 
the latter gentleman was excited. The Herald and its Editor 
were abused, and motives of selfishness were attributed to Mr. 
Bennett. It was asserted that he wished government patron- 
age, in the shape of advertising and printing. 

To counteract the effect of such charges, Mr. Bennett under- 
took to show that an attempt had been made by the cabinet, 
or more particularly by certain members of it, to secure the 
favor of the Herald. He published the correspondence of 
George W. Brega, a gentleman in the Land Office, who seems to 
have taken the responsibility of holding conversations for the 
purpose of making himself valuable to the government and to 
the Herald. This correspondence exhibited a great deal of 
folly on the part of the cabinet, some members of which seemed 
to suppose that they could secure the influence of the Herald 
by furnishing it with certain kinds of early news. 

This affair produced much discussion in the public journals, 
but it was of little importance, except in showing that the 
Herald had no need of any such aid as the government was 
disposed to bestow, and that Mr. Clayton hoped to control the 
columns / of the journal by reaching it through Mr. Brega's 
agency. The controversy brought out facts sufficiently 
amusing for political idlers, but the most valuable point of the 
whole was the publication by Mr. Bennett himself, of a letter 
addressed by him to Zachary Taylor. It will be observed that 
it is strongly characteristic of the Editor. 

New York Herald Office, Nov. 17, 1848. 
General Taylor, Dear Sir : — 

Allow me to congratulate you on the result of the recent election. 

Perhaps you may remember the Cataract Hotel, at Niagara Falls, in 
the summer of 1840, when I met with you, soon after your return from 
Florida. That casual intercourse was the basis of my recent course. 



GENERAL TAYLOR AND MR. BENNETT. 423 

When we received in New York, an account of your dangerous posi- 
tion and subsequent brilliant affairs on the Rio Grande, in April and May, 
1846, I remembered the acquaintance at Niagara, and then took the 
course in my journal which it has since followed. 

You are now elevated to the high honor of President of the United 
States by the spontaneous outburst of the popular will. I joined in the 
movement simply from a conviction of your patriotism and capacity, but 
I want nothing, personally, of any administration but wisdom in its 
management, and the public good for its leading purpose. As an inde- 
pendent journalist and an early friend of your election, I can offer you a 
warm support when you may be right, with a respectful dissent when I 
am convinced you may be wrong. The highest human intellect is weak 
and erring before Heaven, yet I have every hope that your administration 
of this great Republic will be as wise, patriotic, and successful as that of 
the Father of his Country. 

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

James G. Bennett. 

This is independent, plain, and fearless. It has nothing in 
it that betrays the ogre or the villain. It is a manly avowal 
of admiration, bearing the tidings of a friendly disposition of 
power, should its use be necessary to sustain a friend. Mr. 
Bennett had complete reliance in the purposes, motives, and 
views of President Taylor, but he feared that from want of expe- 
rience he would fail in civil affairs, where he was liable to be 
deceived by his advisers. He was friendly to President Taylor, 
but he considered his cabinet inexcusably weak and corrupt. 

Mr. Bennett, in speaking of his intercourse with General 
Taylor, quotes a letter from him, as introductory to his history 
of the Brega affair. 

Baton Rouge, La., January 19, 1849. 

* * * * I avail myself of an opportunity, before leaving this place 
to journey North, to thank you most sincerely for the courtesy and kind- 
ness you have for so long a time extended to me, in sending me the 
regular numbers of your journal, and to add, with this acknowledgment, 
that I have on all occasions perused it with interest and pleasure. 

Please accept my sincere wishes for your health and prosperity, and for 
the continued success and usefulness of your journal. * * * * 

Z. Tatloe. 



424 president Taylor's cabinet. 

" Thus stood our relations towards the new administration, 
at its commencement. On the announcement of the men who 
were to compose his cabinet, we expressed no great hopes 
of its success, or the nationality of their principles. Through 
the whole of the period of time which has elapsed from their 
induction into office to the present day, we have invariably 
expressed an independent, honest, and fearless opinion of their 
course and policy, as they were developed to the world. On many 
occasions, beginning with the appointment of Mr. McGaughey, 
we differed with the cabinet in their appointments and policy, 
and expressed our opinion to that effect, in our independent and 
untrammelled columns. 

" Soon after the induction of Mr. Clayton and his associates, 
they discovered an occasional correspondent of ours in Wash- 
ington, and they seem to have conceived the idea of securing 
him to their particular interests and purposes, by giving him a 
good office in one of the departments. Thus G. W. Brega, 
from that moment, became their agent — their correspondent — 
not ours." 

This business, however, like many other political wonders, 
lasted only a few days, although there can be little doubt that 
Mr. Bennett was quite correct as to the general facts in the 
case, and was fully justified in defending himself from the 
attacks of the administration journals. This old style of politi- 
cal warfare, however, is now going out of fashion, and is almost 
unworthy of historical record, except as it illustrates the pro- 
gress of society. 

On the popular topics which were discussed by the public 
journals in 1849, Mr. Bennett wrote with great spirit and 
power. He was not so far conservative as to oppose reforms, 
or the spirit of liberty. Upon the necessity of a better govern- 
ment of the city of New York he was, as he ever has been, 
earnest and eloquent. On the state of Europe, particularly on 
the condition of Hungary, he expressed the anxiety of a 
thorough republican mind — and while he did not go so far as 
some of his neighbors in urging action to the very extreme of 
theory, he advocated with zeal every practicable step which 



PROGRESSIVE JOURNALS. 425 

would favor the cause of human freedom throughout the 
globe. 

It ever must be the fate of those who counsel that modera- 
tion which alone triumphs, to become less distinguished in any 
cause than those who rashly peril even themselves and their 
cause too, by reckless haste and extreme opinions. Any 
journalist may become noisy and vehement — may scold or 
fulminate, and thus attract attention for a time, but it is the 
one who goes safely that gains the greatest power, and increases 
it for exercise in an important crisis. It is not difficult to tell 
which journal in the United States, in case of a great public 
commotion, would be found to possess the most power in allay^- 
ing a dangerous storm. It could be only that one which has 
been tested by years of success in the varied controversies of 
human life. That journal is the New York Herald. 

Other journals have power in proportion to their circulation 
and character, and to the mental forces which they employ in 
behalf of the public welfare — but no man who has observed 
the course of the Herald can for one moment gravely deny 
that it has any rival in moving the sympathy and action of the 
mass of society. One great cause of this is its complete identi- 
fication with the business and commercial interests of the 
people, which it has earned by a long and indefatigable asso- 
ciation with the great trading communities of the country — an 
association which it has cultivated since 1835, and has been 
increasing to this hour. Journals which are called more pro- 
gressive have been in antagonism with various commercial 
interests, and, in some cases, have set their minds and morals 
above the mass of the people, condemning from mere caprice, 
or from the more unpardonable folly which springs from super- 
ficial knowledge of the thing condemned. As an illustration, 
the Journal of Commerce may be cited, and the Tribune, as it 
was a year or two ago. They undertook to place a bar upon 
the Drama, and the thousands who live by it and delight in 
it. Wretched as is its condition, it needs aid, not outlawry ; 
and it is only a short-sighted view of human society that can 
counsel opposition to that which the law sanctions, and every 



426 FREEDOM IN ADVERTISING. 

nation, civilized and savage, in some shape cultivates and 
maintains. 

The Journal of Commerce will not advertise for theatres. 
There may be a question whether or not it has a right to 
refuse an advertisement ; legislative enactment may decide that 
question hereafter, should it be deemed important to test the 
privilege of the Press. It appears rather anomalous, certainly, 
in a free country, for any commercial journal to set up its 
dictum against the expressed voice of the people and the laws. 
Indeed, in strict justice to the community, the time seems to 
demand that no publisher of a commercial journal shall have 
the right to refuse any advertisement of a proper character. 
Does not a publisher stand in the relation of a common carrier % 
Shall it be possible for a man to attack his neighbor's pursuit 
in a powerful manner, without giving the party injured an 
opportunity of being reported through the same channel in his 
own defence % In 1827, Mr. Noah refused to advertise for Mr. 
Gilbert's Bowery Theatre — the object being to cripple the 
establishment. Would it not have been well had there been 
a law for Mr. Gilbert's protection ? This question is very 
important on many accounts. Statements may be made under 
"the freedom of the press," which are only worth correc- 
tion in the very journal in which they appear. A reply may 
be refused, even where the regular price of advertising is 
tendered. Is this just to the individuals interested in the issue % 
Certainly not. It is a tyrannical proceeding. The advertising 
columns of a journal should be free to all men who are willing 
to pay their money, and he who is shut out should be 
empowered to sue for damages or the possible injury. It 
would be quite easy for a powerful journal to injure any man's 
business by advertising for a rival exclusively, and thus many 
a worthy person could be subjected to injustice. The journalist 
has a right to Jiis editorial columns, for he is responsible for 
their government and opinions, but he has but a limited right 
to that portion of his sheet which he publicly announces is for 
sale. It is offered to the community on certain terms, and it is 
upon a knowledge of this fact, and upon the faith that publicity 



THEOBALD MATHEW. 427 

can be gained, that many a man embarks in business or in 
speculations. 

In 1849 Theobald Mathew, the apostle of temperance, made 
his tour through the United States. His mission was duly 
respected by the Herald, and all his chief movements were 
recorded. It has been the custom of the Herald always to 
give full accounts of all distinguished strangers who have 
visited the United States, and many of them have not left 
New York without examining the interior of the Herald 
Building — a monument of individual enterprise and ambition, 
which Cannot but excite the admiration of all those who delight 
in the progress of intellect from its dark cell of care and per- 
plexity to the splendors of a golden evening. 

When the general scope of the articles in the Herald of this 
year is examined, they are found to be remarkably philosophi- 
cal and just. Mr. Bennett wrote with great vigor, and in 
respect to European politics was so clear and comprehensive 
as to popularize subjects which formerly were as little under- 
stood as American politics are to Europeans. It is certain that 
he gave to the varying drama of European Revolutions an 
interest seldom known to any events transpiring in the Eastern 
world. The variety of his labors included also the examination 
of almost every subject of local and national importance that 
demanded the comments of the* Press. This required constant 
study and a singleness of purpose only known to the thorough 
journalist. Unlike many another editor, Mr. Bennett did not 
divide his attention by passing out of the legitimate sphere of 
his profession into the fields of party politics or into campaigns 
for popular reforms. Although he was capable of speaking 
with great fluency and force, no ambition for distinction lured 
him from his editorial room to play the orator. Naturally 
sensitive and unobtrusive, though eminently distinguished for 
a moral courage that never quailed before the bravest or most 
brutal men, he pursued his own chosen course with a steadfast- 
ness of purpose, that could not fail to produce the most 
beneficial results for his prime aim and object in life — the 
establishment of a leading popular journal. He had arrived 



428 JOURNALIST OF THE PEOPLE. 

now at a point in his career, where even his faults of judgment 
were liable to be overlooked, in the general admiration of his 
course of editorial action. The prejudices which had been culti- 
vated in some minds against him, by the long catalogue of charges 
framed by his opponents, no longer had power to disturb his 
repose. He was the Journalist of the People — and if, like the 
People, he was in error occasionally, he was never ashamed to 
rectify his opinions, or to revise his judgments. He had lived 
long enough to know that there is no virtue in adhering to 
" principles " — the term with which politicians dignify " poli- 
cies " — when the public good requires their abandonment. 
Not always correct, or always publicly amiable, yet men who 
knew him best believed his heart was in the right place, in 
spite of occasional impatience and forwardness. With all his 
faults, there was no journalist in the United States at the close 
of the first half of the present century, who filled a larger 
space in the public mind, or directed a more powerful moral 
lever. He had not ascended to this eminence rapidly, but by 
those slow degrees which give the best assurance of a perma- 
nent elevation. No public honors had yet attended his exalta- 
tion to power over the minds of the country; but there was an 
abiding sense of his influence, which was felt alike from the 
remotest " digging " in California to every extreme limit of 
American civilization. Surely this is a power that nothing 
but Journalism can enjoy in a republican country ; and though 
such a power, like all power exercised over the human mind, 
may have been used occasionally with too much autocratic 
severity upon individual interests, yet such small exceptions 
must not constitute the standard by which a public judg- 
ment of such a man is to be gauged. The general influence of 
the public Press is all that can interest the philosopher, and 
those cases which are connected with private griefs are sub- 
jects only for individual settlement. That Mr. Bennett has 
been too censorious upon persons of very little public impor- 
tance, is not to be questioned ; that he has exalted to public 
eminence many persons who have not merited such distinction 



THE GREAT RESULTS. 429 

is not to be doubted. Such facts, however, are only trivial in 
their character when weighed with the grave and serious 
results which have been produced by the establishment and 
publication of the New York Herald. 



430 RIGHT OF SEARCH. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



The commencement of the latter half of the nineteenth cen- 
tury was an important point both in the history of the world 
and of Journalism. The New York Herald was animated by 
the condition of society throughout the civilized world, and 
circulating more generally than any daily newspaper of any 
country, it had become the cynosure of intellectual eyes. 

On the Right of Search, a question that had been agitated 
frequently after the last war with Great Britain, and which 
Lord Palmerston had persistently advocated for many years, 
the Herald took strong national ground. In October, 1841, 
Lord Palmerston and Mr. Stevenson, the American Minister at 
the Court of St. James, indulged in a long correspondence on 
the subject. President Tyler, at the same time, made a strong 
point of the question and that correspondence in his annual 
message. This was cniefly with respect to visitations and 
searches on the African coast, where the Douglas, October 21, 
1839, and subsequently the Iago, Hero, and Mary, American 
vessels, had been overhauled by British vessels. When Palmer- 
ston retired from the British Cabinet, Lord Aberdeen renewed 
the presumptuous doctrine of his predecessor, and on coming 
again into office in 1850, Lord Palmerston still attempted to 
carry this policy so repugnant to American foresight and 
sagacity, by sending British vessels of war into the waters of 
the southern Atlantic. 

Mr. Bennett ridiculed and opposed these acts of aggression, 
and endeavored to spur the American Cabinet to its duty, by 
contrasting the difference between the protection given to 
British and to American citizens by their respective govern- 



THE DRURY TRIALS. 431 

ments. In all this zeal for the democratic and national princi- 
ples involved in the subject, and in the consideration of the 
attempts of the British government to overturn the operation of 
the Monroe doctrine, with respect to European interference with 
the affairs of this continent, the sagacity of profound statesman- 
ship was apparent, and it is certain that but for the activity and 
penetration of the Herald some very serious blunders would 
have been made at Washington during the negotiations between 
Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer and the cabinet. 

In moral fearlessness, perhaps Mr. Bennett never dis- 
tinguished himself more than in the pains taken by him to 
break up one of the most dangerous organizations of wicked 
men known to New York. In unwinding the plots and counter- 
plots of the One-eyed Thompson gang, at the hazard of his 
life, he persisted for many months to exert his influence for 
the annihilation of a power which seemed superior to the law. 
The Drury Trials were scrutinized by a severity never known 
to Journalism on this continent, and the ends of justice were 
secured by the bold character of Mr. Bennett in ferreting the 
secret intrigues which were connected with the Warner tor- 
pedo, and the other machinery connected with the diabolical 
plans of those who were engaged in the series of criminal acts 
which came under the examination of the courts of justice. In 
a similar case, the London Times was presented with a testi- 
monial by the commercial men of Great Britain for its zeal in 
behalf of the public ; but the only testimonial which Mr. Ben- 
nett received for the peril of life itself, was the approbation of 
his conscience in the discharge of a great, yet self-imposed, 
public duty. No threats intimidated him ; no fears deterred 
him from following out the determination he made to break up 
a conspiracy which defied the police and even justice itself. 

The importance of the investigations made by Mr. Bennett, 
may be estimated by the fact, that not less than a dozen of the 
most successful malefactors ever known in the city of. New 
York, were forced to retire from a community where they had 
pillaged society and plotted against each other, and against 
innocent persons, without fear aijd with impunity. Some be- 



432 FORJEtEST DIVORCE CASE. 

came tenants of state prisons, one attempted to commit murder 
even in an open court, and others fled to parts unknown. One 
terminated his own life by suicide, after having led a life of sin- 
gular misdemeanors and crimes. The fear of the Herald para- 
lysed the efforts of these criminals. It has been suspected that 
a loaded box, intended for explosion, which was sent to Mr. Ben- 
nett a year or two ago, was devised by one of these culprits. 
Luckily it was opened with great caution, and its deadly de- 
sign was frustrated. 

The Forrest divorce case was commenced in 1850. This 
was an affair that created unusual discussion, and even more 
than the Jarvis case of an earlier day, which was kept before 
the public for many years. It was difficult for a journalist to 
meddle with the controversy without doing injustice to one of 
the parties to the suit, yet the Herald, on the whole, consider- 
ing the number of articles which it published, was as free from 
prejudice as could be expected. It is to be questioned if a 
journalist, as a general rule, can be justified in making com- 
ments on such cases till the suit has terminated ; — but this is a 
matter which appeals for a decision to individual discretion. 
In this case the public sympathy was much excited, and much 
passion was exhibited by the friends of both parties, who were 
in such a public position as to make the subject one of unusual 
interest. The termination of the suit, and of the quarrels 
which attended it, render any comments upon it in this work 
unnecessary. If any injustice was done, the sufferer, in view 
of the mingled lot of human life, can exclaim only with Buck- 
ingham — 

" 'Tis but the fate of place, 
And the rough brake that fortune must go through." 

In the political world there were a variety of interesting 
topics in 1850, to all of which the Herald devoted due atten- 
tion. Mr. Bennett commenced his attacks on President Tay- 
lor's cabinet, upon the discovery of the payment of claims to 
persons connected with the government. The Galphin cabinet 
became the theme of public discussion, and the expositions of 



THE COMPROMISE MEASURES. 433 

tlie course of the leading men at Washington were frank and 
fearless. Mr. Clayton, the Secretary of State, through Mr. 
Brega, had offered government patronage to the Herald, as was 
done during Mr. Polk's administration, but as at all other 
times, Mr. Bennett only laughed at such attempts to gain the 
favor of his journal. On the contrary, it only stimulated the 
Herald to probe every place with a deeper scrutiny. Towards 
the President it expressed the kindest feelings ; but against 
his advisers it was bitterly hostile. 

The Compromise measures for the termination of the Slavery 
question were, in Mr. Bennett's view, the most important of all 
political subjects. Upon Slavery, and its connexion with poli- 
tical parties, he has pursued a uniform course from the first. 
This proves not that he is sectional or Southern in his feel- 
ings. He has been devoted to the Union and to the Con- 
stitution, and has thrown the whole weight of his influence 
against the agitation of the Slavery question in the North. 
Perhaps he may be willing to advocate indemnity from the 
national treasury to the planters, whenever they are ready to 
propose accepting it, and thus test the sincerity of Northern 
action ; but this is not certain. It is more probable that he 
views the chief part of the agitation as a mere political game, 
which wily politicians are prepared to play with any prominent 
topic before the people, and hence justifies the course he pur- 
sues, in spite of the thunders of journals which hold the annihi- 
lation of slavery to be of more consequence than the preserva- 
tion of the Union. It is quite true that Mr. Bennett has stood 
by the South ; but he has never abandoned the North, or the 
West. He has not been sectional. He has taken the Consti- 
tution, for his chart, and with a uniform national spirit has 
opposed any rash interference with the fundamental com- 
promises by which the people are bound together. It is easy to 
condemn this course ; but in the consistency with which Mr. 
Bennett has pursued it, he has displayed the same peculiar 
characteristics which marked the course of Daniel Webster and 
Henry Clay, who, from the time of the Missouri Compromise to 
1850, were animated by considerations of a national and not 

19 



434 SOUTHERN CONVENTIONS. 

sectional, or merely political kind. If strict justice and 
humanity can rule, the Anti-Slavery cause will yet triumph. 
It is the knowledge of the insincerity of political parties 
that restrains the natural progress of right and the highest 
benefits of public economy. The local and state elections, 
secured by the excitation of moral subjects, have proved 
so often the political insincerity of men, that the people at 
large are not willing to be cajoled in so serious a matter as a 
Presidential election. Placing all personal prejudices aside, 
any political philosopher cannot but perceive the inevitable 
instinct of the people to sustain the Union against even the 
appearance of hostility towards the South. That this feeling 
will increase as the future ripens with events of domestic and 
foreign growth, there cannot be a doubt. Thus it is easy to 
believe that Mr. Bennett's course on the Slavery question will 
be deemed at some distant day to have been wise and patriotic, 
particularly as it is regarded in the light of popular Journalism, 
which is so far removed from the two extremes of party passion 
on the one hand and of strict political justice on the other. 

On the Nashville Convention, Mr. Bennett wrote with no 
sectional feeling. He aimed his shafts at the disorganizes of 
the South with as much force as he ever did against those of 
the North, and contended for the perpetuity of the Union. Out 
of one hundred journals published in the Southern States, 
seventy-five were in favor of that convention. Twenty-five 
journals were in a neutral position, or opposed to it. Thus it 
was evident that the meeting was a popular one. Its object 
was not disunion — but consolidation, or an attempt to make a 
President. 

A few sentences from the Herald, on the condition of the 
country, and the duties of its citizens, will express more clearly 
Mr. Bennett's spirit as connected with the discussion of the 
Slavery question for a series of fifteen years. 

" At the present crisis of our political history, to which we 
have been hurried by the madness of men, the necessity of 
revising our political judgments, and of strengthening ourselves 
to perpetuate, unimpaired, the legacy secured to us by the 



CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 435 

Father of this country, presses upon us with no ordinary 
earnestness. Factions have urged men to the edge of a 
precipice, from which they must retreat or be lost. There is 
no safety in delay, and doubt only creates danger. We must 
be for the Union, or against it. No neutral ground can be 
occupied. This is evident from the irremediable position of 
the organs of legislation. 

" Placed in a garden of social independence and lawful free- 
dom, ' to dress and keep it,' we are forgetting the admonitions 
of the past, and indulging our appetites at the possible sacrifice 
of our posterity. Our individual strength is not exerted to 
avert the abrupt transitions leading to instability, «md we are 
in danger of ruin from the haughty self-consciousness that is 
the prime characteristic of the age. If the experience of the 
past be lost upon us, we shall plunge headlong to the same 
abyss of unsettled political existence that marks the older 
countries of the world. 

" Thus far, the success of the first truly elective and repre- 
sentative republic that the world has known, exhibits our go- 
vernment to be beyond the character of an experiment. The 
spectacle of a people deriving power from themselves, and sus- 
taining it by the force of their own intelligence and virtue, 
attracts the observation and excites the admiration of the 
world. Ancient thrones and powerful dynasties fade, with all 
their splendor, before it, while tyrants are only seen as men, 
and mankind as equal in their political privileges. 

" Yet, with all the just pride that we may entertain, there is 
a check to any exultation. The ambitions, passions, and fac- 
tions, which distract society, are around us. Dangers threaten 
us. The age, with the consciousness that marks its spirit, is 
liable to undertake tasks beyond its real strength. Veneration 
for the past is lost in the shouts and self-gratulations of the 
present, and the classes of reformers outnumber the errors 
which they seek to dispel. Standards are erected on every 
hillock, and people flock to them with impulsive ignorance, 
regardless of the results in enlisting under them. Of those 
who rear those standards — who, in the vanity of intellect, 



436 DUTIES AND DEMANDS. 

marshal forces for the purposes of faction and discord, who 
would be the arbiters of all action, who behold nothing accom- 
plished that might not have been done better — factionists, who, 
under the professions of peace, of gentleness, and non-resistance, 
would establish discord, confusion, and disunion — philanthropic 
factionists, who question motives, stab character, divide 
churches, attack the Sabbath, urge the overthrow of the clergy, 
and would delight in the flow of blood, and in the madness of 
civil strife — factionists who deem nothing honest save their own 
honesty, nothing moral save their own morality, nothing legal 
save their own views of legality, nothing divine except their 
own schemes, to the perpetration of which all their time, all 
their talents, are devoted — devoted, as they themselves repre- 
sent, for one great and happy result — a result which, under their 
administration, never can be accomplished, or only so by the 
sacrifice of the lives of thousands — what need be said ? Are 
not the evidences of their insane agitation staring us full in the 
face 1 

" At this crisis, then, we require the spirit of Washington to 
prevail in all our counsels. We need that political virtue which 
is the science of national happiness. We have duties to per- 
form towards society and our country — duties not limited for 
the benefit of any one portion of our race. These demands 
upon us are of invaluable importance. They involve the 
highest, deepest, strongest moral obligations. They cry out 
with no sectional voice. They are stupendous, as they relate 
to tl:3 perpetuation of the confederacy, and to the social happi- 
ness of all who live under this government. No narrow circle 
bounds them, but they are of universal application ; no party 
can hedge them in, for they are due to the nation at large ; and 
he only can be a good citizen, who yields something of his own 
prejudices and desires for the general benefit of his country- 
men." 

The Compromise measures of 1850 have been a constant 
theme ever since they were passed, and several cases under 
the Fugitive Slave act have created in one or two cities much 
commotion. In Massachusetts, in 1S55, there have been some 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 437 

strange proceedings with respect to one of the Commissioners, 
who acted under the laws of the United States. He has been 
censured, virtually, by the legislature for doing his duty, yet 
such is the determination of the body politic on the question 
of slavery, that an act of wrong to law has only to be sug- 
gested to be voted into favor ! Little do men think of the 
means by which the agitation of the Slavery question was sub- 
dued. When Congress opened, clouds enveloped the capitol. 
Hostile elements rushed together. A speaker was elected with 
difficulty. For months nothing could be done. Mr. Calhoun, 
the great exponent of Southern feeling, died soon after. A 
calm ensued. Preliminary measures were carried. The com- 
mittee of Thirteen were selected. Clay, Webster, and Cass 
spoke in favor of compromises. Defeat attended every desire 
of patriotism. President Taylor was now called from the 
scenes of his earthly existence, and in the mournful lull of 
political strife, one by one the Senate of the United States 
passed each provision of the Compromise Bill, — the House of 
Representatives not daring to do otherwise than to imitate the 
action of the superior assembly. 

By the death of President Taylor, Millard Fillmore, the 
Vice President, was suddenly placed in the chair of Chief Ma- 
gistrate. He selected Daniel Webster, John J. Crittenden, 
and Thomas Corwin, as members of his cabinet, and made a 
decided improvement upon the preceding government. 

The remarkable enterprise displayed by the Herald in its 
editorial columns, was never more apparent than in the publi- 
cation of the biographies of Calhoun and Taylor in the very 
sheets that contained the telegraphic announcement of their 
departures from the world. In the biographies of both, the 
course of the Herald towards each of these distinguished men 
was sustained. The biography of President Taylor, occupying 
three columns of fine type, was prepared and written after 
eleven o'clock at night. After censuring the Clayton cabinet, 
it concluded in these words : 

" President Taylor's character as a civil magistrate has been 
rather negative than positive. The whole country has ae- 



438 THE RUSSIAN POLICY. 

knowledged liini to be, in the loftiest sense, patriotic, honest, 
sincere, virtuous, and free from personal ambition. This is a 
lofty eulogy upon one whose military glory no words can 
dignify or exalt, and to whom the whole civilized world has 
paid the homage of admiration. He has gone down to the 
silent chambers of death with an enviable fame, while his 
memory will live in the hearts of his countrymen, who will 
now universally deplore his sudden loss, at one of the most 
critical periods of the confederacy, as a national calamity." 

On European affairs, in 1850, Mr. Bennett displayed a judg- 
ment that seldom erred. Indeed, the Herald contained many 
prophetical views. The events of 1854-55 in the Crimea will 
make the selection of an entire article acceptable. It is en- 
titled " The Russian Policy of Extension," and is taken from 
the paper of August 27. 

The announcement is made, by every fresh arrival of news from 
Russia, that the Emperor Nicholas is increasing his forces, and pre- 
paring munitions of war on a grand scale, significant of some purpose. 
What possible object the Czar may have in contemplation, however, 
becomes a puzzle even to the facile imagination of the professional 
political correspondents of the English newspapers. These clever 
writers, who are apt to circumscribe the designs of Nicholas by the nar- 
row limits of Western Europe, lose sight of the great policy of Russia, 
forget her position, and do not think of the giant strides which, in her 
dreams, that mighty empire would make from her remote eastern 
frontier, eastward and to the south. Recently, while calling attention to 
the fact that a Turkish ambassador has embarked on board the United 
States storeship Erie, for this port, we were forced to notice the general 
policy of Russia towards Turkey ; but the designs of the former power 
increase so rapidly in the extent of her preparations, that some further 
notice must be taken of a fact which will interest, eventually, the go- 
vernment of this confederacy. 

For many years past, the fleet stationed upon the Black Sea, and con- 
taining within it many powerful war steamers, has given significant inti- 
mations of a purpose on the part of Nicholas, at once bold, gigantic, and 
vastly important to the civilized world. The forts at Odessa, at Sevas- 
topol, Theodosia, Anapa, and all along the coast of the Euxine, and also 
upon the Sea of Azof, at Taganrog and Azof, supported with great 



TURKEY IN ASIA. 439 

difficulty and expense as they are, speak loudly of a future which is not 
only possible, but very probable. Checked by the haughty defiance and 
the unconquerable patience of the Circassians and Georgians, the Czar 
finds numerous obstacles opposing the project of his ambition to subject 
these nations, that he may more readily and easily advance and subject 
Smyrna and the whole of Turkey in Asia. Sweeping with a powerful 
fleet down the Bosphorus, and taking the great city of Constantine, the 
Czar would thus have free egress and ingress for his present southern 
dominions on the Black Sea, even to the Mediterranean Sea, by the Sea 
of Marmora and the Archipelago. If this desirable conquest could be 
made, Persia would fall naturally enough into the desires of the ambitious 
Nicholas, and he would not stop in his progress of acquisition till he 
should be able to annex Turkey in Asia and other kingdoms in the east, 
to his territory and surveillance. Bulgaria, Romania, and Rumelia, how- 
ever, will be able to cope formidably with the aggressor on the western 
coast of the Euxine, and Anatolia, or Asia Minor, as it is usually called, 
would meet with an iron front even the Russian forces, even though they 
might be flushed with the conquest of Circassia and Georgia. The war 
in the Caucasus now hinders the progress of Nicholas. Years have been 
spent in a vain attempt to subject the scattered and impoverished, but 
yet warlike, people of that region. Nevertheless, should the great mili- 
tary force now enlisted by the Czar, be sent forward to cut the way for 
a greater future march of warlike power, it is impossible to conjecture the 
result of such a determination. There can be no doubt, though, that we 
have sketched the main features of the design, and that we are very 
likely to be a correct prophet as to the destination of that host of an 
army now preparing for distribution and for aggression. The immense 
force of Nicholas evidently is not intended for any direct application and 
bearing upon the nations of civilized Europe. The Czar is interested 
equally with them in the preservation of peace, in order that monarchical 
usages and power may the better be strengthened and consolidated. 
Nicholas, with admirable sagacity, perceives the usefulness of opening an 
uninterrupted channel with the Mediterranean, not only to strengthen 
his own power on the borders of the Euxine, but to add thereby to the 
prosperity of the starving inhabitants of that region, and of the Crimea, 
that lovely locality where Jason sought the golden fleece, and where the 
early Christians planted their standards and their faith, within the rocky 
walls of the Greek church, the early simplicity of which has now de- 
parted. 

In a commercial point of view, the conquest desired by Nicholas might 
be extremely valuable to him, and to his subjugated allies; but the 



440 THE BRITISH NAVY. 

United States can never look on with indifference, in consequence 
of any and all possible good, when an onslaught shall be made upon 
Turkey. The land of the Moslem is the great barrier against the fusion 
of the European elements, which republican countries must dread and 
oppose. Consequently, we may well rejoice that there is a probability 
of our using, through diplomatic sagacity, a vast influence upon the 
world's balance of power. Circumstances, manifold and almost mar- 
vellous, guided by a special Providence, furnish us, at the present time, 
an admirable opportunity for protecting this continent against the 
European combination, which will, one day or other, be attempted. 
France, at present, is an anomaly. With all her greatness — with all her 
political energy — with all her republican spirit, she presents merely the 
hope of an hereafter with which a republican country can sympathize. 
If she should prove true to herself and to her professions, she will be a 
political sister of the United States, worthy of our most enlarged and 
liberal regard and love ; and in this anticipation we must leave her for 
the present, to express delight at the prospect of a more intimate alliance 
between our country and Switzerland. With Switzerland and Turkey 
acting in unison with the United States, and with the expectation that 
France will come into their unassuming yet protective league, the cause 
of human liberty and of the diminution of oppression throughout 
Europe, may be advanced in a manner at once quiet, inoffensive, and full 
of blessing to the happiness of the world. The vast commerce of our 
rapidly increasing country will be the cement of the peace of nations ; 
and, jealous of any infractions upon it or upon its interests, we shall be 
able to remonstrate against any cruel and uncalled for aggressions by the 
powerful nations of Europe. The Czar of Russia may have his ambitious 
projects without number, and sternly magnificent in their imaginary 
splendor, but the practical execution of them cannot be carried out while 
our interests oppose a barrier to their dangerous display. 

With Switzerland and Turkey acting in unison with us, these two 
nations will become important for the maintenance of peace and for the 
security of commerce, and happier still may be the day when we count 
upon France as another nation in the natural league against arbitrary 
oppression and the hostile extension of kingly empire. 

On the 12th of September the Herald publisnea " The 
British Navy List," and a list of British vessels taken in the 
War of 1812-15. This important document was obtained by 
an editorial allusion to facts but little known. The House of 
Lords, in 1815, called upon the Admiralty for the returns of 



BRITISH NAVAL LOSSES. 441 

British ships of war and armed vessels taken by the Americans 
during the conflict. The report was made, by which it appeared 
that the loss extended to thirty-six ships, carrying two hun- 
dred and sixty-six guns, when, in truth, fifty-six national ves- 
sels, or eight hundred and eighty guns, were lost' by the 
British. The whole number of vessels belonging to Great 
Britain which were captured, or lost at sea, amounted to two 
thousand four hundred and fifty-three, or nine thousand six 
hundred and seventy-nine guns ! Nearly a fourth of the 
whole British tonnage of that period fell before the energy and 
prowess of the Americans. In 1842 Sir Charles Napier pub- 
licly stated, that orders were given to British officers to bear 
away from American ships, when found equal in men and 
guns. 

The Herald added, that Sir Charles Napier said that he 
himself " had received such orders, though he deemed it best 
to place them in the only fitting portion — the quarter gallery. 
However, the quarter gallery, it appears, was not the best 
place on all occasions for such orders, as may be seen by our 
victories over superior strength and power on many occasions. 
We have no ambition to boast ; but so much has been said of 
England's being the mistress of the seas — Britannia ruling the 
main — and so many Englishmen have been Dibdenized into 
the musical belief that there is much truth in poetry, particu- 
larly with regard to naval affairs, that we must be permitted, in 
very plain and self-satisfied terms, to express a strong doubt 
of the boasted power and efficacy of the British navy. 

" It is all very fine for public servants, in the shape of minis- 
ters, ambassadors, and diplomatists, to enter into a mutual 
admiration of each other, and to refer to the past with agricul- 
tural exactitude — planting the seeds for a crop of popularity ; 
but we take it that such efforts are not quite so satisfactory to 
the people at large, as would be some sound information of 
real value to the nation. The phrases of after-dinner speeches 
always have a vinous warmth, and the sparkling qualities of 
champagne, with all the effervescence for which that liquid is 
celebrated — but it is not food for a great people. There is 

19* 



442 THE GREAT VOCALISTS. 

something more solid desired. Non-committalism may be a 
very safe path for a minister to tread in a foreign country ; 
bnt where there are vast national interests at stake, it' would 
be better to abjure public dinners, and devote the public's 
valuable time to important questions affecting the great future 
of this continent. 

" We have a vast deal too much public speaking, and too 
little public action, particularly while Palmerston is in power 
in England ; for there will always be enough for any American 
minister to do there to check that pertinacious Neptune of 
politicians in his infractions upon the peace of the ocean. 
Whenever he appears, it is the signal for the most gloomy 
apprehensions. One hour cannot tell what another will 
bring forth, or what effect may not result from the reckless 
political libertinism of that dangerous man, as the acts with 
respect to the searching of our ships, the burning of a Brazilian 
vessel of war, the seizure o^ San Juan from Nicaragua, the ag- 
gressions in Greece and the Chinese seas, and in other parts 
of the world, too plainly evince." 

On the 7th of September, Jenny Land's first appearance 
in the United States took place at Castle Garden. Phineas 
T. Barnum, whose recent autobiography gives a full history 
of the Lind enterprise, was desirous to secure the favor of the 
Herald, but he knew quite well that it was in no man's ability 
to purchase its goodwill. He has expressed himself clearly on 
this point in his work, and has paid a handsome tribute to Mr. 
Bennett* s kindness in aiding the Lind engagement. Certainly, 
Mr. Barnum was kindly treated by the Herald and all connect- 
ed with it, and even from those upon whom he had no claim, he 
received the most generous attention and counsels. This is not 
remarkable, however. It may be said generally, that persons 
of enterprise and of merit are most kindly favored by Mr. 
Bennett. When Parodi, the most impassioned lyrical actress 
of the day, entered into competition for popularity with Jenny 
Lind, she received from the Herald that recognition of her 
talents which aided her in establishing herself as second in im- 
portance to no other vocalist. When Catherine Hayes arrived. 



ENCOURAGEMENT TO TALENT. 443 

and all through her career in 1§51, the Herald was zealous 
in distinguishing her, for her great skill and acquirements. 
They were all generously assisted. This was done so purely 
within the love of the musical art, that they could not but ap- 
preciate the elaborate notices of their skill as the highest com- 
pliment to their talents. The same may be said of many other 
artists ; and the consequence of this is, that the opinions of the 
Herald are of the first importance with respect to the musical 
and dramatic art. 

Such unsolicited kindness sometimes may impress readers 
with the idea, that too much encouragement is given to youthful 
talent ; but the history of many persons, now distinguished by 
the strong contrast with their early struggles, shows that Mr. 
Bennett's goodwill towards merit has been beneficial to art. 
In a country so wide-spread as this, where there are so many 
large cities, there is room enough for a great many more per- 
sons than the stage now boasts, and perhaps the neglected 
drama, in all its forms, would be much improved by an ad- 
dition of two or three hundred intelligent students in the dra- 
matic art. 

The Herald, also, has not confined its attention to dramatic 
and lyric artists. Painters, sculptors, and other artists, have 
received constant attention, and their works have been made 
known to the public by criticisms from competent minds. 
Authors, too, have been kindly treated, and where their merits 
challenged admiration, they have received freely the phrases 
of welcome into the fields of literature. There may be cases 
of individual complaint. It would be strange, indeed, if it 
were otherwise ; for a daily journal has so many claims upon 
the scrutiny of its authors, that it cannot be exempt from the 
common lot of individuals, with whom error is a condition of 
existence. This much should be understood plainly, however, 
that Mr. Bennett is ready always to sympathize with the needs 
of those who are struggling in the path of life and fame. He 
is not so severe as to crush wantonly, as some of his contempo- 
raries strive to do, those who aspire to distinction by honorable 
exertion. He belongs to no coterie, but aims to do justice, 



444 CUBAN EXPEDITIONS. 

when it seems important for linn to aim at all. Many mistakes 
in judgment are inseparable from all human convictions. These 
form the exceptions to the general character of the Herald on 
all subjects connected with literature and the fine arts ; and if 
the veneration for talent is less loudly professed than in some 
other journals, the treatment of it is usually courteous and 
respectful. 

On the 26th of November, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett went to 
Havana. Although in the spring of 1850 an invading expe- 
dition, under the command of General Lopez, had landed at 
Cardenas, yet the Editor and his lady received the most dis- 
tinguished attentions from the Captain-General and the highest 
society in Havana. They dined at the Palace, and on the 7th 
of December attended the grand ball given by the Signor 
Conde de Penalver, in the most imposing of the great palaces 
of the city. The court journal said, "We had the pleasure of 
admiring Mrs. Bennett, of New York, so remarkable for her 
judgment, and whose manifest talents attracted the greatest 
interest. She was attired with perfect taste, and her exquisite 
dress was observed with the deepest attention. She was ac- 
companied by Mr. Bennett." 

Mr. Bennett's object in visiting Cuba was to ascertain the 
true condition of opinions there with respect to the revolution- 
izing of the island. At that season, the trials of Lopez and 
others, for the first infraction of the laws of 1818, were going 
on in the United States, and the whole subject was very im- 
portant in a national point of view. Mr. Bennett did not be- 
lieve that the time had come for a change of the government. 
The apparent loyalty of the people of Cuba seemed to repel 
the idea of any successful revolution, and the course of the 
Herald from that time was a continuance of that opposition to 
the fillibusters, whose popularity in the Southern states did not 
swerve it from its duty to the laws of the country. The sub- 
sequent history of General Lopez is well known. In 1851 he 
landed upon the island, attempted to commence a campaign, 
fought with bravery, was captured and executed. Some of his 
3omrades were shot, a few were pardoned, and many were 



MR. BENNETT'S BENEVOLENCE. 445 

imprisoned. For the latter, Mrs. Bennett in person made an 
appeal to the Spanish court, in 1851, and assisted materially 
in restoring them to liberty. 

As an evidence of the liberality sometimes displayed by the 
Herald . establishment, a fact of some little interest may be 
cited. After the pardon of two officers engaged in Lopez's 
expedition, one of them, with a written account of the whole 
transaction, presented himself to the editor. His manuscript 
was offered for publication, and on being told to leave it and 
call the next day, he did so, fully confident that some fair 
remuneration would be given to him for his labor. The young 
man was poor, and far from his home in the South. Mr. Ben- 
nett was absent at the time, but Mr. Frederic Hudson and 
another editor having consulted on the subject, the establish- 
ment was prepared to do its duty in the customary spirit of its 
proprietor. The officer was presented with a check for five 
hundred dollars. 

There is little known to the public respecting the kindness 
and liberality of Mr. Bennett, not only to those who have been 
in his employment, but to strangers whose circumstances have 
placed them in the need of temporary assistance. How many 
cases of bountiful charity could be recorded it is impossible to 
state, as there is no ostentation in the good effected in this way 
by Mr. Bennett. It is beyond dispute, however, that he has 
been known to give away several hundred dollars in a single 
week to the unfortunate, for charitable purposes, and to institu- 
tions of a benevolent character. Probably the amount of money 
distributed by him during the last twenty years in this manner, 
would surprise the public were they acquainted with its full ex- 
tent. Even while the Herald was in its infancy, and struggling 
for existence, an amount exceeding two thousand dollars was 
donated by Mr. Bennett in various small sums, discreetly ap- 
propriated. This was done, too, at a time when he was cen- 
sured severely for the course he was pursuing to bring his 
journal before the public, and when the attacks of his enemies 
were prompted more by a persecuting spirit, than any direct 
regard to public taste or morality. It is well known that many 



446 POINTS OF CHARACTER. 

institutions have been the recipients of his generosity, and the 
unobtrusive manner in which he has chosen to apply a portion 
of his income, is the most satisfactory assurance of his real 
sympathy for those whose circumstances make demands upon 
the fortunate in society. Were it the design of this work to 
select instances which would act upon the feelings of those who 
would know Mr. Bennett's true character, it would be easy to 
fill many pages with records which would produce such results. 
It is not necessary ; but it may be said that Mr. Bennett pos- 
sesses a heart singularly alive to the sufferings of others. In- 
deed, it is painful to him to hear any story of sorrow or desti- 
tution, and where he is certain that no imposition is intended, 
he is not approached in vain. Latterly it has been necessary 
to check such applications, the frequency of which made it 
proper to curtail the demonstrations of a generous nature. Yet 
when the reader forms his estimate of Mr. Bennett, when he 
proposes to censure his sometimes stern severity upon the pur- 
suits and prospects of individuals, let these facts have their due 
weight, lest in the narrowness of -judgment, the acts of a 
benevolent mind should be clouded by the errors of the 
journalist in forgetting occasionally, that he who has power 
over the destiny of his neighbor should guard it rigidly from 
any wanton or cruel exercise. That Mr. Bennett has erred 
thus, cannot be denied by his best friend ; but it should be a 
theme of regret rather than of censure ; for how difficult it is 
for a journalist, swayed as he is by the hourly actions and 
antagonisms of men — provoked as he is by the daily assaults 
of foes, to stand constantly superior to all passion, and free 
from the contamination to which mental, moral, or physical 
power must be subjected ! When it is remembered, that a 
journalist has no cessation to his thoughts, and but little time 
for deliberation on many subjects, it is not a matter of wonder 
that errors are committed. Scarcely a man in the community 
has such wisdom that his daily remarks do not become justly 
censurable in his own judgment, and what more than man is a 
journalist, only that his opinions may be those of thousands 
who are taught by him ? Fearful responsibility ! May the 



MUCH IN LITTLE. • 447 

day come when Journalism, • improved by the social and 
professional combination of those engaged in it, will be free from 
those stains which are inseparable from the codeless character 
which must belong to it always, while it derives no formularies 
from an association of experiences, no elevation from laws and 
conventions framed by those who are its administrators. 
• Of the other subjects which engaged the editorial talent of 
the Herald in 1850 a few prominent ones may be named. 
The first Common Council of New York city under the new 
charter ; the Queen of England's commission for holding a 
world's fair ; the Virginia resolutions against Vermont, for its 
resolutions on slavery ; the murder of George Parkman by 
John W. Webster in Boston ; Union demonstrations at Castle 
Garden, February 25th and October 30th ; death of Calhoun, 
March 31st; theGrinnell expedition to the Arctic regions; the 
growth of California, and kindred themes, were amply dis- 
cussed. At the close of the year a sketch of the condition of 
the United States was made, which will present a sample of 
the style of the journal at that period of its history. 

The intelligent reader, in comparing the results of the labors of 
Journalism to-day, with what they were when the first newspaper in this 
country — the Boston News Letter — was published in 1740, will not only 
be agreeably surprised at the contrast, but (remembering the fact that, 
after a probation of fourteen years, three hundred copies only were 
circulated at that early period, once a week) will be astonished at the 
enormous circulation of our journal, which demands printing machines 
capable of supplying ten thousand copies an hour, and running at that 
rate for many hours every day in the year. 

Comparisons in other respects are equally curious, as the editor, one 
hundred years ago, congratulated his readers that, after a year's struggle, 
by means of publishing an extra once a fortnight, he had been able to 
recover eight months out of the thirteen of which he was behindhand 
with his European news, and that those who would not desert him, would 
receive in five months the remainder ! 

Now, European news is regularly published an hour after its arrival, 
and the substance of it two days before the mails of the United States 
have reached their destination, w T hile intelligence — conveyed sometimes 
in thousands of words — is flashed every day, and every hour almost, 



448 -THE country's growth. 

through the medium of upwards of thirteen thousand miles of electric 
wires, stretched over this continent, from every important city and dis- 
trict. Thus, events transpiring thousands of miles distant, are recorded 
in every city with a magical promptitude, and with a precision as useful 
as it is astonishing. 

Within the last ten years, our country has displayed in its improved 
financial condition much to delight the political philosopher, while the 
great masses of society have thriven gradually in proportion to their in- 
dustry, thus presenting a sum of national enjoyment such as our institu- 
tions were designed to promote and establish. The vast influx of 
foreign population which has added largely to our own native growth, 
has not materially disturbed the uniform action of the laws, and of those 
national feelings which seem to be growing stronger and stronger with 
both classes every year, as the prosperity of the United States increases. 
Every foreigner who is a worthy, industrious citizen, is regarded as of 
a certain value in the circle of national wealth; and the idle, dissolute, 
and corrupt., that Europe supplies, in contrast to her customary gifts, 
only levy upon us as a nation little more than the charge of a prison or 
a grave. Our railroads, stretching over the country about nine thousand 
miles, and built at an expense of almost three hundred millions of dol- 
lars, have given employment and ample means of subsistence to thousands 
on thousands of immigrating Europeans, thus laying the foundation for 
future industry on their part in other and probably more profitable fields 
of usefulness. New England alone has invested one hundred millions 
of dollars in railroad's, and the state of New York herself over fifty-six 
millions of dollars in the same kind of enterprises, at a cost only of about 
forty thousand dollars per mile. The canals of the United States extend 
above four thousand miles, more than a hundred and thirteen millions of 
dollars having been invested in these works of public utility and profit. 
In this state some absurd restrictions have impeded the completion of 
these works ; but with the increased financial prosperity of the people, a 
wiser spirit is now prevailing. 

The capital invested in the various branches of business has largely 
increased also within the last ten years, and the annual products of in- 
dustry, we doubt not, when the census returns are completed and pub- 
lished, will be found increased in value to an amount scarcely contemplat- 
ed. The State returns prepare us for large anticipations. Our last 
estimate made the value of the annual products equivalent to about sixty- 
two dollars for each person — the gross amount being over one billion 
and sixty-five millions of dollars. 

Within ten years we have risen from the chaotic stagnation of oui 



AMERICAN ENTERPRISE. 449 

fiscal affairs into a varied yet harmonious creation of currency, at once 
appropriate and useful for all the business purposes of our countrymen. 
Even political folly — the prime source of delays and temporary mischief 
— has been powerless, when placed against the indomitable spirit of our 
citizens engaged in trade. Capital is readily found for every feasible 
project ; and when the day arrives demanding a railroad to the Pacific, 
there will be no delay for want of will or means to carry the work forward 
nobly. Prosperity marks every step in our path ; and the new com- 
mercial market on the Pacific shore, opened by the stimulus given to in- 
dustry by gold, rather than by gold itself, will lead to the adventures of 
our population for still further prosperity, in the islands of the Pacific 
ocean, and in the republican states of Central America. 

Connected with all the great developments of our commercial and mer- 
cantile progress, is the increase of our steam and sailing marine. Our 
rapid clippers are urged to make the shortest passages ever known from 
China and England, that they may prove the advantages of the English 
navigation laws, and clear by one voyage, as has lately been done, the 
whole cost of construction. Our steamers are rapidly coursing every 
sea where the enterprise of man indicates that a share of the profits and 
luxuries of trade may be obtained. The ship-yards of this metropolis 
have been very active for the past year, and the results are known in our 
list of vessels launched, or on the stocks. This branch of industry and 
enterprise has been much increased also in ten years. Capital has been 
directed largely towards it, and the calculations of success prove neither 
to have been premature nor misdirected. While every Atlantic city and 
port has been active in this department, New York, by its abundant 
capital and force of character, has been able to exhibit a picture of in- 
dustry moving wealth in so powerful a manner as to prove a delight to 
society. 

The statistics of crime, to the reflecting and philanthropic citizen, are 
not less interesting than those which indicate so forcibly, and by such vari- 
ous and happy circumstances, the general prosperity both of the nation at 
large and of individuals. While from the nature and weakness of man, 
crime is inevitable, the causes of its aggravation and extension, and the 
power of restraining it, are within the constitution of society itself. Our 
metropolitan prison statistics show that the city is largely taxed by 
foreigners, who, having grown u*p in idleness at home, fail to seek the 
encouraging plenty with which industry in this country invariably rewards 
well-directed exertion. With the general diffusion of education, and the 
gradual improvement in public manners, as yet too much neglected ia 
our great cities, we may hope for restraints upon vice, by means of 



450 PROSPECTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the activity of our public authorities, and the growing certainty that 
crime cannot long go unwhipped by Justice. 

In all the departments of life, we may entertain a just pride at the pros* 
perity that has marked this country during the last year, and the years 
which have elapsed since the taking of the sixth Census. While our 
Confederacy has spread to remote regions on the Western part of this 
continent, till it embraces thirty-one happy and flourishing independent 
sovereign States, acting in harmony with the Federal Government, con- 
stituted and supported by their agency and will, we find private enter- 
prise seldom wishing for the aid of the national purse to carry out the 
vast projects which at once bless the people and attract the admiration of 
the world. With a government subject to the watchfulness, censure, and 
power of the people — and carried on with comparatively little expense — ■ 
without the slightest apprehension from foreign foes, and with a great 
conservative majority instinctively alive to the true genius of republican 
government, and always ready to crush the semblance of treason by a 
complete overthrow of those who lean toward its hateful form — with a 
national credit such as few nations can boast, and upon which we have 
no emergencies to try its strength — with a population of twenty-three 
millions of souls, for the most part enlightened, educated, and industrious, 
and all sharing in the elective power, what may we not expect in the 
course of the present century as the fruits of our patient toil, and of an 
undiminished confidence in the value of our institutions. While yet 
young, our example gave an impetus to the first French Revolution 
which began to show itself when the Sixteenth Louis married Marie 
Antoinette ; and at a later day, the influence of our prosperity has been 
to drive the citizen king, Louis Philippe, from his throne and country, 
and to establish in his place a President elected by popular suffrages. 
Other revolutions have followed in Europe, with limited success, yet all 
giving tokens of a great political hereafter, when the hereditary monar- 
chies instituted by Charlemagne, shall terminate their career of injustice 
and oppression. South America, too, has profited by the lessons of the 
past, and her republics are gradually assuming that enlightened policy 
and rule which so happily have guided us in the path of national distinc- 
tion and greatness. 

Like all great nations, we can have but one great commercial centre. 
Circumstances seem to have destined this metropolis as this grand com- 
mercial point — and not merely to have marked it as the nucleus of all 
our own enterprises, but as the cynosure of the nations of the globe. 
Capital alone is wanting to make this city in point of influence, as it will 
soon be in point of population, the megapolis of the world. The great 



HOPES FOR THE FUTURE. 451 

projects contemplated by men on this continent, together with the 
tendency of enterprises already in active operation, promise to result in 
grand effects ; and with a still improving government of pure-minded men 
to rule over us in coming generations, our hopes for the happiness of our 
country are unbounded. 



452 EXPEDITION* TO JAPAN. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



The proposition for an exploring expedition to Japan, under 
the auspices of the government of the United States, was con- 
ceived and originated in the Herald establishment. President 
Fillmore's Cabinet took up the suggestion, and carried it out 
with spirit until the work was accomplished. This was a very 
important step in the history of American intercourse with 
Eastern Asia — an intercourse which is destined to expand 
greatly when the tide of emigration shall flow along the whole 
length of the auriferous shore of the Pacific. The first articles 
in favor of this project appeared in 1851, on the second day of 
which seventeen American seamen returned from Japanese 
imprisonment, and the whole theme was kept before the public 
mind till the certainty of the expedition was secured. In April, 
1852, important articles on the subject were published. 

There have been many other public enterprises undertaken 
at the suggestion of the editorial columns of the Herald, and it 
is a fact, that success has attended nearly all the public projects 
which have originated in the office of this journal — projects not 
entertained to gratify any individual selfishness or ambition, 
but with a desire to benefit the community at large. 

Mr. Bennett was favorable to the Canal Enlargement Bill, 
authorizing the New York Legislature to borrow ten millions 
of dollars, upon a pledge of the future resources of the canals 
of the state, to be applied for the completion of the Erie canal 
enlargement, and for the benefit of the Genesee Valley and 
Black River canals. The measure was successful June 24th, 
1851. The nuisance of corrupt politics which this subject long 
generated and sustained, could not be abated but by a settle- 
ment of the discussion. 






LOUIS KOSSUTH. 453 

On the 5th of December, 1851, Louis Kossuth arrived at 
Staten Island, and was received with almost as much enthusi- 
asm as Lafayette when he was invited to this country. Mr. 
Bennett's course towards this great man was hospitable enough 
at first, but as the Hungarian orator proceeded on his journey, 
the doctrines inculcated in his brilliant speeches aroused sus- 
picions in many quarters. Mr. Bennett, perhaps incensed only 
by the issue of Hungarian bonds, brought his whole force 
against the popularity of the man, and he certainly produced a 
spirit of reaction that has not subsided to this day. 

Of the justice or injustice of this course it would require an 
entire disquisition to speak. It may be said, however, that 
Louis Kossuth is one of the rarest spirits of this modern pro- 
gressive age. He stands by the side of Mazzini, the Italian 
republican, an outcast, and as poor as was Louis Napoleon 
when he was sworn in as a special constable in London. But 
may not the day arrive when these patient embodiments of the 
republican ideas of Hungary and Italy will find a path opened 
in Europe' through which they and their followers may ad- 
vance, while the Judasian hero and his train shall only fly 
through it in retreat I If this dark fate be not in store for the 
blood of Napoleon, it will be because it will be preserved by 
that Eternal Justice which restores glory to the spirit of the 
basely rifled, betrayed, and divorced Josephine, and per- 
petuates it for purposes beyond the ken of mortal apprehen- 
sion. 

Kossuth till 1853 visited many cities in the United States. 
His peculiar organization imbibed too freely the great demo- 
cratic principles which he saw wrought into every form of 
society around him — but he was not merely stimulated. He 
did not stop at the moment of inspiration. He drank till he 
reeled on the very verge of that political madness which 
reveals Pantisocracies, Utopias, and Arcadias, never known 
except to the pure dreams of the political idealist. All history 
establishes that there is no hope for those heavens of govern- 
ment for which man sighs, until he has annihilated the golden 
god of his idolatry, whose feet cover every point of sea and 



454 FRANKLIN PIERCE. 

land, the shadows of whose hands are on every field, valley, 
wood, mountain, and river, and whose head is immovable amid 
the lightnings of the skies — the god of all action, of all religion, 
of everything — Mammon, and who only tolerates the God of the 
universe while he exists as a name and idea. Let man dislike 
the reflection as he may, he knows that this is the truth, and 
that no human being in civilized society, or in the perhaps 
purer society of heathendom, lives out of the presence and 
control of this potent deity that human ingenuity has con- 
structed, but which it has little power to destroy. 

Mr. Bennett visited Europe for a few weeks in 1851, and 
has resided for brief seasons there till 1854, chiefly with a 
view to obtain a mild climate in winter. He has been troubled 
with a bronchial affection, that sometimes becomes painful and 
harassing, and during the last winter he has seldom exposed 
himself to the rigors of our harsh climate, but has remained 
within his own apartments at the hotel where he resides. Able 
medical treatment, however, has made some improvement of 
his physical condition, and he is said to enjoy a ruder health 
than he has known for several years. 

In making his European visits, Mr. Bennett always has de- 
ferred his departure while any great question has been pending 
in which his personal scrutiny and action could be important. 
Eor instance, in 1852 he did not leave for Europe till he was 
quite certain of the issue of the elections in November, which 
made Franklin Pierce the President of the United States for 
four years from March 4th, 1853. Towards this result the 
Herald contributed, having opposed the course taken by Win- 
field Scott, the Whig candidate — a gentleman whose skill as a 
military leader needs not the addition of Presidential honors to 
consecrate his name in American history. He was known per- 
sonally to Mr. Bennett, and between them there was good 
feeling and mutual respect, but the Herald could not swerve 
from a course that was to be successful. 

It has been said that Mr. Bennett acted with a view to ob- 
tain the mission to France or England, and that he applied for 
the former appointment. That he made any application is false. 



THE MISSION TO FRANCE. 455 

Some gentlemen of the democratic party, during Mr. Bennett's 
absence, visited the Herald office and declared their intention 
to urge his appointment as minister to France, and this action 
was announced to the acting editor, Mr. Frederic Hudson. It 
was done without Mr. Bennett's knowledge, and by those poli- 
ticians who had a warm admiration for the truly republican 
spirit which Mr. Bennett has displayed for more than thirty 
years in a series of actions, which, upon a close analysis, are 
found to be highly consistent though progressive, and progres- 
sive even where they have been tinged with a conservative 
spirit. President Pierce's administration, however, has not 
been distinguished by much moral courage, or by much regard 
for political friendships. It was raised into power by hands 
which were chopped off as they clung to the gunwale of the 
drifting boat of the democratic party. Mr. Bennett may have 
expected the mission to France, or he may not have indulged 
in any such hope. However, when the application was made, 
his claims were certainly worthy of respectful consideration ; 
for no one can doubt his qualifications for such a position, 
should he be disposed to accept the duties incident to so im- 
portant a station ; and all persons in this democratic country 
who delight to see the patient labor of individuals crowned 
with success and honor, would rejoice in that illustration of the 
liberality of our popular institutions, which selects from the 
ranks of talent those who have risen to eminence through the 
thorny ways of detraction, and have outlived the calumnies 
of political mendacity. It is, indeed, difficult so to divide the 
considerations which justice urges from that tangled growth of 
prejudices which insensibly take root in the human mind ; but 
this is no excuse for a persistence in errors or in a course op- 
posed to the palpable suggestions of propriety and right, and 
wise legislators should never hesitate to crown those benefac- 
tors who have sacrificed selfishness at the shrine of the public 
good. 

The increase of topics for journalists within a few years past 
has been enormous. The remainder of the space to which this 
volume is limited would be scarcely sufficient to contain a barren 



456 THE NEXT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 

chronological record of the events which recently have been pub- 
licly discussed. The country is in a peculiar political condition, 
arising from the great struggle to preserve the old party 
organizations by fusions with the elements of two great moral 
agitations. The Temperance and Slavery questions are widely 
and zealously discussed ; and, added to these, the Know- 
Nothing movement, with its hydra-headed power, and its 
various shapes, withstands the blows of the political Hercules. 
Great activity prevails among the people on all these subjects, 
and the skill with which they are used as political instruments 
is far less clumsy than that which belonged to the ridiculous 
Anti-masonic excitement of a former day. The same fanati- 
cism of manner is apparent now as was seen then, when politi- 
cians spoke with tears in their eyes and bewailed the horrors 
by which they were surrounded. # Whether or not the whole is 
to terminate in a political farce or a tragedy, time will prove, 
but the power of Journalism over an educated people is such 
that the amusement of the former is more likely than the terri- 
ble interest which would be inseparable from the latter. 

Mr. Bennett is at work upon these fields of thought and 
action. He is surveying the ground, and preparing to ascer- 
tain how these agitations are to be directed, as they will be by 
the result of the next Presidential election — whether or not a 
President is to be found in New Jersey, New York, Texas, or 
Connecticut — whether or not he is to be of the navy or the 
mercantile marine, from the battle-fields of Texas or those of 
Mexico — out of the encampments of the old parties, or quietly 
brought into light from the secret councils of the great allied 
strength of the people. 

Of course, the Herald has its own peculiar view of the posi- 
tion of things. Having no faith in any reform except as a 
wheel constructed for political purposes, it does not treat any 
subject out of the considerations which attach to such a belief. 
It knows that all private sincerity of opinion is liable to be 
turned into public political hypocrisy, and it deals with the 
political rather than the moral aspects of these topics. This is 
its policy — the policy which explains its course to the com- 






AGITATION OF MORAL THEMES. 457 

prehension of a child. It moves as public opinion changes — 
and public opinion never stands still, never remains as it was 
yesterday, but is ever varying with the circumstances by which 
it is Controlled. 

Thus is the Herald in 1855 full of mystical allusions. True, 
it is flat-footed against the holy cause of Temperance as em- 
bodied in the enactments of the New York Legislature, but the 
editor still bathes daily in cold water, and does not eat to 
excess, or drink spirituous liquors, while he is quite sure that 
many of those who have made the law are unwashed politicians, 
who have not given up their intemperate habits, and do not 
expect to do so. He works against politicians, persuaded pro- 
bably that the good sense of the people in becoming tempe- 
rate ought not to be, and cannot be abridged by any action on his 
part ; and fully satisfied, as every rational mind must be, that 
could the terrible evils incident to the sale of intoxicating 
liquors be ended, this country would be superior immeasurably, 
in every respect, to any land on the face of the earth. Nothing 
has injured Great Britain more than her dram-drinking. It 
was the curse and bane of that country in the last century. 
Scotland and Ireland have suffered beyond description from 
the poison, and could one country set an example of total 
abstinence from .intoxicating drinks it would become the 
brightest light among nations. Laws, however, have not the 
enduring power of fashionable conventions. A queen upon 
her throne may change the whole costume of a realm in a 
month, merely by the force of her example, while her special 
edict would create rebellion. Fashion is more powerful than 
law, and that law is most powerful which intrudes least upon 
the conventional disciplines of society. 

The agitations of moral themes have great value, it must be 
allowed ; but whatever temporary good may be thus effected, 
while laws tend to increase the number of criminals in society, 
the community at large may suffer in the increased prostration 
of character, which produces measureless mischief. Individual 
minds will view such questions in the light of their own expe- 
rience, of their own knowledge of the world and of history, and 

20 



458 MORAL REFORMS. 

in that of those circumstances which belong to the considera- 
tion of every subject where the delicate question of civil and 
individual rights is embraced in the issues. Mr. Bennett's 
particular views may be gathered from his journal. They are 
not such as all of his readers will be willing to entertain. 
They are associated, however, with the interests of a large 
portion of the commercial public, who are not willing to yield 
the certainty of large profits without making a struggle, though 
they may have to cower before the increasing power of public 
opinion, should it prove to be expressed in the legislation of 
those to whom the authority is delegated to regulate the 
action of society. Heaven grant that what is best and wisest, 
and will most bless this happy country, may be done on those 
broad principles of right which are recognised by every intel- 
ligent mind — and that the tyranny of political majorities may 
be so mildly exercised as not to react with terrible earnestness ! 
Moral reforms and their history are interesting topics, as are 
the reforms in the administration of law. One thing has been 
learned — public opinion is necessary to sustain all action. For 
twenty years in all the great Atlantic cities efforts have been 
made to improve the comfort and security of the inhabitants ; 
and gradually the system of European police has been intro 
duced, while in some cases more tyranny over individuals has 
been exercised than is tolerated in the monarchical capitals of 
the Old World. Mayor Harper commenced some broad 
reforms in his day of power, and Fernando Wood has attempted 
the same thing recently. Both have failed in certain efforts 
from the sympathy which exists always in a great community 
for the unfortunate and poor, who cannot be subjected to any 
inconveniences, where justice presides, from which the happy 
and rich are exempted. Mr. Bennett has urged upon the local 
authorities the necessity for improvement in the action of the 
police, and after twenty years' constant outcry on the subject 
something satisfactory has been done. There now remains a 
danger in the opposite extreme, and that has to be guarded 
against. Too much of the European system will be repugnant 
to American feeling, and it will be found necessary for Journal- 



EUROPEAN POLICE SYSTEM. 4Dy 

ism to watch the increase of the little " standing army" which 
belongs to the machinations of political power. Already Mr. 
Bennett has touched the subject, and it may be expected that 
he will continue to examine it, whenever the power of the 
people is abused by their servants in office. 



460 A DAY IN THE HBltALD OFFICE. 



CHAPTER XXXII 



A day in the Herald office ! Who that could have a full 
experience within the walls of the editorial department of the 
establishment would ever read the newspaper itself with any- 
thing less than a curious interest. Let the imagination enjoy 
the complete survey of it from the hour of two o'clock in the 
morning, when the reporters of the evening meetings, and the 
commentators on the theatres and opera have completed their 
labors, and have delivered their " copy " to the foreman of the 
composing or type room, where he awaits the last news by 
the telegraph, or to select from the newspapers coming by the 
night mail, articles which have been announced privately by 
telegraph as important. 

The forms of type are now sent to the machine, where the 
paper is soon thrown off by thousands upon thousands, to sup- 
ply agents, carriers, and distributors, who receive them at an 
early hour, and scatter them by express, by mail, by railroad, 
by steamboat, or by carts, to every part of the country and 
metropolis. It does not take long to clear the office of fifty, 
sixty, seventy thousand copies ! 

At seven o'clock the office boy has prepared »the editorial 
rooms for its occupants. The newspapers by mail have been 
placed at the desk appropriated for the gentleman who has 
charge of that department. They are all opened to the edito- 
rial, or inner side, that they may be inspected with ease and 
despatch. This gentleman having arrived, he casts his eye 
over them, and with a pen marks every article of importance 
calculated to interest Mr. Bennett or that seems of vr ue to a 
special department, such as the money article, the lite ary, or 



MR. BENNETT'S PERSONAL TOIL. 461 

the dramatic. The papers marked for Mr. Bennett are then 
taken to his own private room, where he is seated ready to 
receive them, as soon as he has finished reading the private 
correspondence and letters for publication which have been 
brought in from the post-office. 

As Mr. Bennett reads these letters he makes hurried marks 
upon a sheet of paper before him, throws aside such letters 
as are condemned, files all those intended for the public, 
and places near at hand such as he proposes to give to his 
assistants for inspection, or for the purpose of supplying facts 
of importance. In this, way an hour is passed. The next 
hour will be devoted to the newspapers, and, perhaps, to a 
breakfast, or luncheon of dry toast and tea, as an accompani- 
ment. The editorials of the newspapers particularly are scru- 
tinized, and every now and then dot, dot, goes down a myste- 
rious little word as a peg to hang a thought or an article upon. 
If any political profligate or statesman has made a speech, or 
written a letter, the points in it are all seized with rapidity, 
and designated by a sign upon the memorandum. This work 
being done, and the tea and toast having been exhausted, the 
tray is removed by the boy who has been summoned for the 
purpose, and one of the gentlemen who phonographizes is 
requested to make his appearance. He arrives and takes his 
seat by Mr. Bennett's side, who passes the compliments of the 
day, and asks if anything new has taken place worthy of 
notice. He then begins to talk ; first giving the caption of 
the leading article. He speaks with some rapidity, making his 
points with effect, and sometimes smiling, as he raps one of his 
dear political friends over the knuckles. Having concluded 
his article with — " that will do," he gives the head of another 
article and dictates it in a similar way, and then, perhaps, ano- 
ther, and another, till the reporter sighs at the amount of the 
work he has before him, and he is told that that will be enough 
for " to-day." 

The presence of another gentleman is now required. He 
may not be a phonographer, but one who is able to seize the 
points of a discourse, and fashion them with some force and 



462 EDITORIAL LABORS. 

elegance of expression, or even to illustrate them. Mr. Ben- 
nett invites him to a conversation on a particular topic upon 
which both have been thinking, and then gives his own view, 
which he desires to see written out. All the while his assistant 
editor takes notes, so as not to miss the points or spirit of the 
desired article, and thus having prepared himself with matter 
enough to fill two columns, he is permitted to withdraw. 

A third gentleman is now called. He is, perhaps, engaged 
in the news department, or in the money article department, or 
in reporting for the courts. His opinion is wanted as to whe- 
ther or not there is any subject connected with his department 
that requires editorial comment. If so he is told to state the 
case, and the comments are in due season made in such a way 
as to have an effect where it is most required. 

Noon has now arrived, and visits are received for an hour or 
so, while the collaborators on the journal are completing their 
labors, which they finish by two o'clock, so that the manu- 
scripts may be inspected. They are taken to Mr. Bennett's 
room. He reads them, marks them for their several places in 
the paper, and sends them to the room of the printer. When 
they have been put into type they are sent down to the edito- 
rial rooms for revision, where they are examined once more, 
and are then seen by the public. Whether they are beheld 
the next day, or the day after, will depend upon circumstan- 
ces. 

Between two and three o'clock Mr. Bennett walks in to see 
his busy bees at work. He chats a few minutes with each, 
catches an idea from some observation, and bending over some 
phonographer dictates forty or fifty lines by way of encourag- 
ing his industry. In this way Mr. Bennett makes some very 
pithy speeches, and they are never neglected by the reporters 
as are the speeches of opposition editors at a dinner or public 
meeting — one of the small spites of the daily Press in these 
modern days, yet to be frowned upon as a disgrace to Journal- 
ism, which ought to take delight in doing honor to any respec- 
table member of the profession. 

In the course of Mr. Bennett's walk around the editorial 



POPULAR AMUSEMENTS. 463 

room lie has talked with the gentleman whom he has desired 
to attend to the department of the arts. He makes inquiries 
into the state of the theatres, desires to know who are the most 
worthy, and how the several managers are prospering. If any 
one has met with misfortune, he signifies his desire to have 
such a one assiste'd by a kind word : if any one has shown 
more than ordinary talent, he wishes him to be encouraged, 
but, rather than give any offence, would have all in the same 
walk of art favorably remembered. This is the most trouble- 
some department of Journalism — the most thankless, and the 
most embarrassing. Every word of qualification is taken to be 
enmity in disguise, and every attempt to create enthusiasm for 
art, especially by pointing out the merits of the artist, is con- 
strued into favoritism, or actual sale of the Press, ^Managers 
and artists desire nothing but praise ; and when iKey are cen- 
sured for their want of skill or taste, wonder what enemy has 
been interfering with their prospects. Mr. Benrxtt heeds nothing 
but his duty. He gives all the attention he can devote to these 
subjects, and if the Herald is sometimes unjust it is made so by 
misrepresentations from those who impose upon the good 
nature and credulity of the Editor. Where there are so many 
conflicting interests as in the sphere of public amusements, it is 
not strange that injury should sometimes be inflicted upon those 
who do not merit censure. Directions are given if any new 
artist is to appear, or any new play is to be performed, to 
notice the event according to its merits. 

Mr. Bennett next talks with Frederic Hudson, the director 
of the editorial department, who has already completed his 
work — finished his voluminous correspondence for the day — 
entered the duties of each reporter in the daily journal kept 
for their inspection and guidance, and has buttoned up his coat 
to go to dinner. Few words pass between them. They have 
been for years together, and know each other's wishes without 
words. The colloquy ends, and Mr. Bennett retires to his 
room, from which he soon walks leisurely, in a reflecting mood, 
to his residence. 

About eight or nine o'clock in the evening, having looked in 



464 THE HERALD BUILDING. 

for a few minutes at the opera or theatre, he returns to the 
office. It may be that special news has arrived. If so, he 
takes a pen, in the absence of an amanuensis, and dashes off an 
article in a scrawl almost with the celerity of thought, and then 
returns home to go to bed at the hour of ten o'' clock. Such is 
the daily routine — easily described, but only carried out by 
great energy, constant thought, incessant application, and with 
many trials to the taste and the temper. In sickness and in 
health similar tasks are to be performed, and like troubles to 
be met and overthrown. 

It has been by this methodical application to the editorial 
duties of the office, added to a constant superintendence of 
even the business department, that the establishment has 
been erected of which the Herald Building is the external 
symbol. 

In 1841, in August, Mr. Bennett had so far prospered as to 
be able to purchase the granite and brick edifice extending 
seventy -five feet on Nassau and twenty-one on Fulton street. 
In 1850-51 he added to this by purchasing the Eiker property 
on Fulton street, making the extent of his premises on Fulton 
equal to that on Nassau street. Since then he has purchased 
property on Ann street, but whether or not he will add to this 
estate is matter of doubt. It is possible that eventually a still 
more eligible site may be selected for the publication office of 
the journal. 

The machinery of the press-room, and the offices for folding 
and preparing the papers for the mails, are in the spacious 
vaults under the side-walks in front of the building. The 
ground-floor is used as the counting-room, where the finan- 
cial department is under the charge of Robert Orean, the 
brother of Mrs. Bennett. The next floor is appointed for the 
editorial rooms, library, and Mr. Bennett's private rooms. 
The floor above is devoted to an office for printing job-work — 
a useless appendage to a journal like the Herald, and one 
which taxes valuable space in the paper by stereotyped thea- 
trical announcements, which appear in no less than three sepa- 
rate columns every day. On the same floor, also, connecting 



" MR. BENNETT'S AMBITION. 465 

with the tipper story, are rooms occupied by the proof-readers, 
where are stored manuscripts used even years ago, all filed 
and preserved for reference. 

The upper floor is devoted to the compositors, who are at work 
through the day and night, under the guidance of the foremen, 
Messrs. Layton and Albro, whose services are as efficient to 
the interests of the journal as those of many of its editors. 
The proof-readers, too, possess skill and shrewdness in their 
responsible department, of which Billings Hayward is the 
head. Any practised writer is safe in their hands, and need 
not trouble himself to examine proofs, if his manuscript is 
prepared with that regard for the compositor's labor which he 
has not only reason to expect, but a right to demand. 

Before closing this volume it will be proper to introduce 
an estimate of Mr. Bennett's character as a man and as a 
journalist, by selecting from his writings a few passages in 
which the reader may perceive the real spirit of their author. 
While full justice cannot be done to so extraordinary a man, 
from the fact that he and his Journalism are sometimes in 
strong conflict that cannot be analyzed with certainty, yet it is 
possible from the records already made, and from some of his 
remarkable opinions and declarations, that his merits may be 
appreciated and his faults looked at with charitable candor. 

My ambition is to make the newspaper Press the great organ and pivot 
of government, society, commerce, finance, religion, and all human civili- 
zation. I want to leave behind me no castles, no granite hotels, no 
monuments of marble, no statues of bronze, no pyramids of brick — 
simply a name. The name of James Gordon Bennett, as one of the 
benefactors of the human race, will satisfy every desire and every hope. 



I go for hard work, just principles, an independent mind, a name that 
will last for ages after death, and a place in the glorious hereafter, side 
by side with the greatest master spirit and the purest benefactor of the 
human race. 

20* 



466 HUMAN DEPRAVITY. 

When I started on my own hook last spring, I could not, to save my 
soul, get credit from friend or foe for five dollars. With industry, talent, 
aod reputation, acknowledged on all hands, yet by some secret influence 
or other I was cried down, attempted to be trampled upon, and even 
most audaciously assailed in the open street by the very persons I had 
spent years in supporting and raising in the scale of society. I never 
quailed — I never feared — I never saw tbe man 1 dreaded to meet face to 
face, or the obstacle I would not attempt to surmount. Believing, there- 
fore, that the success of the Herald has grown out of its character and 
peculiar adaptation to the public interests and public tastes, I shall con- 
tinue in the same fearless, impartial line of conduct wbich has so far met 
with encouragement far beyond my expectations and hopes.. 



Praise or dispraise — abuse or condemnation are equally thrown away 
upon me. Born in the midst of the strictest morality — educated in 
principles of the highest integrity, naturally inclined, from the first 
impulses of existence, to be a believer in human virtue, I have grown up 
in the world, holding with a death-grasp on the original elements of my 
soul, while every new discovery in human affairs has only revealed a 
deeper depravity in every form and every principle of the present state 
of society and morals, both in this country and in Europe. I speak on 
every occasion the words of truth and soberness. I have seen human 
depravity to the core. I proclaim each morning on fifteen thousand 
sheets of thought and intellect the deep guilt that is encrusting over 
society. What is my reward ? I am called a scoundrel — a villain — a 
depraved wretch — a base coward — a vile calumniator — a miserable pol- 
troon. These anonymous assassins of character are leagued and stimu- 
lated by the worst men in society — by speculators — by pickpockets — by 
sixpenny editors — by miserable hypocrites, whose crimes and immorali- 
ties I have exposed, and shall continue to expose, as long as the God of 
Heaven gives me a soul to think, and a hand to execute. Slanders the 
most vile and dastardly that ever blackness of heart can conceive are 
circulated against the Herald and my personal character, — a character that 
never yet has been stained either in the old, or the new world. 

Mr. Bennett seems to have had no common admiration for 
the talents and independence of Jtohn Quincy Adams. At the 
commencement of that session of Congress in which Mr. Adams 
distinguished himself by his* action on the question of the 



A GIFT IN MISFORTUNE. 467 

French Indemnities, he used these words, alike remarkable for 
their truth, and for their clear description of the character of a 
statesman, whose value to the Union was only fully felt when 
his services were lost to the country : — 

" Mr. Adams is an extraordinary man. He is by no means as eccen 
trie as he is called by the opposition. He despises party, and acts his 
own views, feelings, and suggestions. Every independent man of real 
talent is called, by political hacks, eccentric, but who cares for the 
aspersions of political rascals nowadays f 

In this paragraph, it may be perceived that Mr. Bennett 
also saw the resemblance between his own course and that of 
the industrious Sage of Quincy. There was a method in the 
madness of both, if their departure from the ordinary ways of 
men is to be construed into insanity. Here are two paragraphs 
indited after his establishment, at an early day, had been 
almost ruined by a conflagration : — 

I have actually received over one hundred dollars to repair my loss, 
and refurnish my printing-office. One highly respectable gentleman in 
this city, a scholar, a patriot, and a man of science and talent, sent me 
enclosed in a note of genuine condolence, an old American Eagle coined 
in 1795. This piece of pure gold I would not part with for ten times its 
value. I shall keep it as an evidence of pure and unadulterated friend- 
ship to my dying day, and when I am dead, under the grass, and the 
daisies blushing over me, I shall take care to have it handed down to my 
posterity as an heir-loom never to be parted with. 

Unsolicited, unasked, unexpected have both friendship and enmity 
been extended towards this journal during its short career. Those who 
have shown either of these feelings will not be disappointed in the 
future. I can remember friendship keenly as I can forget hostility. 1 
have no objection to forgive enemies, particularly after I have trampled 
them under my feet — but to love friends, to esteem them, to admire 
them, to cherish them, and that passionately too, is one of the principal 
elements of my life, being, and existence. 



When the original genius of Socrates broke through the darkness of 
Athenian superstition, he alarmed the sophists — he called forth persona, 



468 LIFE, CHARACTER, FORTUNE, FATE. 

hatred. He was sacrificed to the passions of an ignorant and brutal mob. 
When Galileo first revealed to the world the wonderful discoveries of 
Astronomy, the supporters of superstition cast him into prison, and 
endeavored to bury knowledge and science in the same dungeon. When 
Shakespeare rose like an effulgent star, and cast a halo of glory around 
the drama, he was assailed by as many enemies — accused of immorality, 
as much as ignorance and superstition could master and bring together. 

The various favorable opinions which have been expressed towards our 
youthful establishment, are highly gratifying to our vanity — an article 
which we possess to a certain extent, in common with the rest of the 
ugly sons and pretty daughters of Adam and Eve. 



If I shall have to date my Wall Street reports and my searching 
investigations into public conduct, from prison, they shall not lose their 
edge — their truth — their spirit — or their courage. 



Political morals — I speak from a long personal knowledge of the sub- 
ject — political morals are the bane of the country ; they debauch the bar 
and the bench equally. They are the grave of honor and the charnel- 
house of integrity. 



That I can surpass every paper in New York, every person will 
acknowledge — that I will do so, I am resolved, determined. 



I mean to link my life, character, fortune, fate, all with the Herald. 
If I live I know I shall succeed in my purpose, for I never yet set my 
heart upon a thing that I did not accomplish. 



Having at the age of nineteen made myself in another country master 
of intellectual philosophy and moral science, by a deep perusal of every 
English and foreign author on the subject, I naturally at an early age. 
took an excursion into the fresh fields of political economy, then opened 



REFORMERS. 469 

by Adam Smith and his contemporaries, and all those branches of science 
connected with its general nature. This science, comprehending cur- 
rency, commerce, banking, money, all the phenomena of modern industry, 
presented a fascination to my mind almost equal to that of Newton's 
Principia, or Stewart's Metaphysics. 

I have studied these matters, as I tumbled through life, with all the 
ardor that a lover studies the varying lineaments of-his mistress's fair face. 
At this day the perusal of any new book on commercial science, creates 
in me an enthusiasm equal to what a novel will do in the heart of a 
young lady or a modern dandy. 

In reviewing the history of Mr. Bennett's career as a jour- 
nalist, the impartial judge has a broad and tangled field to 
survey. In the first place it is necessary to decide upon the 
duties of a journalist who aims to- make a daily newspaper for 
the mass of readers, which are very different from those of a 
professed reformer, whose ambition is to deal with the errors 
of society without palliating their existence, or entering into 
any compromises to overturn them, and who necessarily must 
write his journal for only a limited circulation among those who 
sympathize with his own views and doctrines. 

Now a reformer may be of more than one kind. He may 
grapple directly with an evil, or he may touch it tenderly. 
Sometimes the latter course is preferable, where it is important 
to secure a practical result. At least, it is not strange that a 
mind should exist with such a knowledge of the history of 
reforms and the gradual means by which they have been 
accomplished, as to doubt the propriety of attempting to change 
society by sudden shocks and the mere force of eloquence — 
lowever well founded in truth or reason. The bold reformer 

?ts the seed into the ground, but his more prudent neighbor 
who watches the growth, and occasionally trims and prunes the 
^vines, is the one who is likelier to enjoy the harvest. Both are 
necessary for the improvement of society, but it is unreasonable 
to say that one is not as valuable as the other in his own particu- 
jr sphere of operation. 

The professed reformer usually demands and expects too 
much of society — and unless his nature is very combative, he 



470 MR. BENNETT A REFORMER. 

is liable to retreat from his position in disgust, and to give up 
his labors in despair. He deems the world perverse, and insen- 
sible to truth and to reason — and so it is ; but the fault lies 
somewhat in his own sanguine hopes, for he has expected more 
than the current of human events has given him any reason to 
anticipate. 

Mr. Bennett never has been called a reformer — but he is one, 
and has produced more effect upon society in the United States 
within twenty-five or thirty years, by his peculiar labors, than 
many a man who has been catalogued with the progressive 
men of the age. No one who has read these pages can doubt 
that this is a fact ; and were it possible, within a volume, to 
show the influence which he has exerted on society by the 
examination of questions on social, financial, and political life, 
even in the columns of the Herald, there would be a mass of 
remarkable testimony to the point that would not be doubted. 

Already in the incidents which have been noticed there has 
been given much evidence that will establish several strong 
points which prove that he has been a reformer — one who has 
been valuable to society in the sphere which it is his profession 
to occupy. Prior to his connexion with the cheap Press, it 
had taken no high ground in public opinion. The financial, 
political, and social world was guided, or was echoed rather, 
hy the sixpenny Press. There was a great deal of political 
and public corruption, which found no censor ; and the people 
at large were not well informed on the public topics* which 
engaged the attention of society. The circulation of the daily 
papers scarcely ever exceeded four or five thousand copies, and 
men depended chiefly upon their neighbors for the news, or 
attended some reading-room to obtain it at its primal source. 

In this condition of things, Mr.. Bennett not only pushed his 
Herald into society, but he went still further. He forced 
every other paper to exert itself to keep pace with him in 
obtaining news, in reporting facts, trials, lectures, everything, 
so that the public became interested in every field of observa- 
tion and inquiry. One has only to compare the old journals 
with those even of the year 1840 and of the present day, tc 



INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE. 471 

be assured of the vast change wrought in the character of the 
Press. In fact, there is not a daily paper now published that 
has not taken its position as a journal from adopting the plans 
of the Herald; and even those which endeavored for years to 
place a ban upon certain departments of life as unworthy of 
countenance, lately have found it ngcessary to be more tolerant 
and catholic in order to keep pace with competition and the 
demands of the people. 

However deeply many popular journals may take pride in 
their appearance and management, all of them are largely in- 
debted to Mr. Bennett for the mode in which they are conduct- 
ed. If they are not imitations of their prototype in many 
respects, they are such variations as have been suggested by a 
comparison with the columns of the Herald, which, though not 
as complete in matter and style as they could be made, are yet 
very far in advance of contemporary prints. 

It was the Herald that perfected the system of distribution 
which is so important to the circulation of newspapers. The 
first package expresses, it has been seen, were established by 
W. F. Harnden in 1841, as an improvement of his business of an 
earlier day, and Mr. Bennett warmly encouraged that and 
every similar enterprise, thus building up that grand system 
of express agencies which now extends to every state in the 
country, and to almost every important town. It was the pub- 
licity given by the Herald to the plan, and the example set by 
the packages of newspapers flying hundreds of miles away 
from New York, which induced enterprising men to engage in 
this lucrative and useful branch of business. 

In literature the Herald exerted an influence that was very 
beneficial to men of letters. It encouraged by its reports the 
public lectures and the recitation of poems now so popular 
throughout the country. It was only a few years ago that 
that distinguished but unhappy poet and scholar, Sumner 
Lincoln Fairfield, was persecuted by the old journals for 
daring to read his poem of "Abaddon" to a public audience. 
It was deemed immodest and out of place, and there was 
violent abuse for so grave an offence against the conventionality 



472 INFLUENCE ON THE PROFESSIONS, 

of society ; but to-day a Pierpont, a Saxe, a Holmes, or a 
Benjamin, may read a poem publicly, though, like the poor 
author of " The Last Night of Pompeii," they may not be 
obliged to do it from the direst necessity. Mr. Bennett's 
reports of these popular lectures increased and excited public 
interest in them. They gww under his fostering care till they 
gave authors incomes of two, three, and four thousand dollars 
a year for comparatively little labor. Under the small para- 
graph notices of the old journals the lecture season was always 
a failure. It was the reports of them which originated with 
the Herald which gave the lectures distinction and consequence. 
Who does not remember those of Mr. Barrett on Sweden- 
borgianism, those of Jared Sparks on American subjects, that 
of Mr. Dallas on Russia, and so on from 1841 to the present 
hour, besides many other reports as early as 1836 1 

The professional men gained distinction by the attention of 
the Herald also. The lectures of the medical faculty were fully 
reported, and the speeches of the advocates at the bar gave 
them an eminence with the people which was founded not on 
rumor, but on the presentation of their own arguments. In 
fact, thousands of valuable thoughts, if not of extended argu- 
ments, would have been lost to the world but for the enterprise 
of Mr. Bennett in introducing that expensive machinery which 
he ultimately forced every newspaper of importance either to 
introduce, or to perish for want of adopting. Even the very 
reformers of the time, of every stamp and kind, are indebted 
largely to the Herald for the promulgation of their own words 
and thoughts, and usually they have been reported, as they 
always ought to be, without any running commentary or gra- 
tuitous abuse — a license that no reporter ought to indulge in ; 
for a reporter should be as a mere machine to repeat, in spite 
of editorial suggestion or dictation. He should know no master 
but his duty, and that is to give the exact truth. His profes- 
sion is a superior one, and no love of place or popularity should 
swerve him from giving the truth in its integrity. If he depart 
from this course, he inflicts an injury on himself, on his profes- 
sion, and on the journal which employs him. Mr. Bennett's 



EXPOSITIONS IN FINANCE. 473 

policy has ever been to report verbatim, if possible, and he is 
very properly opposed to those reports which are sometimes 
made by ambitious gentlemen to show what they think of pub- 
lic questions or of public men — or oftener, how well they can 
pander to their editor-in-chief. 

In the realms of finance Mr. Bennett has had a great in- 
fluence. He has been so far above fear and favor that he has 
saved the hard-working millions a vast sum by always being 
ready to expose financial frauds and attempts to impose upon 
labor. The files of the Herald for twenty years are a record 
of protections against the plots of schemers to defraud the 
people of their earnings, and neither position nor name has 
spared those who through carelessness or desire have associated 
themselves with men whose designs were sinister and mis- 
chievous. They have not been let alone, but whenever the 
ground for attacking them could be perceived as tenable and 
sound the exposition has followed. 

Errors may have been made, but, on the whole, the inter- 
ference of Mr. Bennett has been salutary, and usually there 
has lain behind every disclosure a mass of testimony only 
known to the secret archives of the establishment — that 
strange repository, whose maw, could it open, would disclose 
enough to confound not only the multitude, but the wise men 
of the nation. 

It may be affirmed with truth, that if the Herald had not 
adopted a bold course in the outset of its career, it never 
would have proved the terror to schemers which it has been, 
and which has saved the public from many a plot to which 
society would have been subjected. 

In New York there are always men ready to engage in plans 
for the purpose of deceiving the public. This is usually done now 
by the formation of stock companies. To watch the formation 
and operation of these nefarious systems of public robbery and 
gambling is no easy task. The " money articles" of the Herald, 
therefore, are very important to the public, and they form the 
thermometer of financial morals. 

What would have become of thousands of men and of their 



474 INFLUENCE ON EELIGIOUS SECTS. 

property had not this department of the public journal been 
originated by Mr. Bennett, and faithfully sustained by his able 
and industrious coadjutor Edward W. Hudson ? It is in vain 
that interested parties object to its reports, when usually 
public events justify the predictions in them. It is the most 
important department of a public press, but only one journal 
in ten seems to be aware of the importance of making it inde- 
pendent, searching, and impartial. 

That the Herald has had a beneficial influence on the 
character and conduct of religious sects in this country cannot 
be doubted. The time was, when a clamor and rancor injuri- 
ous to true religion marked the pulpit, — which was a tribunal 
for judgments on the belief of man. That day happily has 
passed away ; and, in its stead, a more brotherly and Christian 
spirit animates the clergymen of all denominations. 

Less is thought of the saving grace and efficiency of mere 
creeds and dogmas, and more of* practical piety of life, and of 
the exercise of real virtues. The quiet satire and common 
sense in the Herald, that placed all sects upon one common 
basis of authority — and made the Scriptures alone, through the 
understanding of the reader, the guides of the heart and the 
intellect, independent of the action of men to gain proselytes for 
any. special society or association, has been favorable to the 
cause of morality and religion. 

This has been accomplished by the justice that has been 
administered to each sect, while the public mind has been pro- 
tected from running into those extremes of enthusiasm and 
fanaticism which always react, sooner or later, with terrible 
force upon society. In this great cause the Herald has had 
the assistance of some of the ablest divines of the day — and it 
is known that on topics of great interest to the Christian 
church, it has had the benefit of the valuable thoughts and 
opinions of men who have learned to appreciate the real pur- 
pose and- motive of this journal, when dealing with these 
subjects — one in harmony with the institutions of the country, 
and sanctioned by the letter of its Constitution. 

The occasional tendencies to unite Church and State have 



CHURCH AND STATE. 475 

been checked always by a determined exposition of them, and 
by a zealous opposition to every effort to depart from the 
highest and best regulation of a republican government. 
Where the educational institutions of the country are modelled 
after those existing in foreign countries, the classes of educated 
men annually issuing from American colleges virtually fill 
society with some of the privileged orders of other lands, — and 
there is need of watchfulness, lest, as the numbers of these 
increase, their influence should be consolidated for the erection 
of political power. 

Already alarm is felt at the means exerted to hold church 
lands in imitation of the practices of old countries, and the 
question is a serious one in the breast of every true American, 
whether the interests of religion require, or the good of the 
people and of future generations demands, the extension of 
church property beyond the limits designated by prudence and 
discretion. The state has a power to protect itself against the 
growth of anything that may endanger the cause of the people 
— and the people themselves will awake eventually to urge the 
state to exercise its power for the benefit of all its citizens. 

Mr. Bennett has watched faithfully the course to which the 
action of the clergy, in some cases, has been tending, and he 
has been on the side of the republic — not dealing out ana- 
themas and invectives, but ridiculing every attempt to establish 
any plan for engrafting the effete policy of monarchies upon 
the broad principles of liberty which are the foundation of 
public happiness in this land. He has done a duty to the 
country which can be traced throughout his whole course, 
although the superficial observer may lose sight of the fact 
from not making an attempt to analyze the motives which have 
prompted his actions in a thousand apparently trivial and 
unimportant instances. No wonder is it that he should have 
given offence frequently, for those who have felt most keenly 
the purpose of his satire and ridicule have most quickly dis- 
cerned the reason which has given these cunning weapons edge 
and point. 

In recurring to the many instances in which the Herald has 



476 FUTURE OF THE HERALD. 

recorded the march, of religious enthusiasm, the memory reverts 
with satisfaction to the good nature which has characterized 
the language expressing the follies of men, while it dwells with 
equal pleasure upon those severer censures which have been 
used towards the disciples of those visionary and dangerous 
doctrines which have been imported from time to time from the 
materialistic philosophers of Europe — who, in their attempts 
to create and perfect a system, strike at the basis of society, as 
did the Dantons and Robespierres of the French Revolution, 
without being assured of anything to keep men within the 
bounds of decency or of order. Whatever there is admirable 
in any of the philosophies of living originated by the genius of 
modern thinkers, let society be thankful for ; but let it, also, be 
wary in taking any genius as an idol before which all the con- 
servative instincts of society shall bend in willing and easy 
homage. 

Mr. Bennett has done well in repressing this spirit, particu- 
larly when it was urged and excited by some of the most 
brilliant and industrious minds of the country, whose labors 
were unfitting men for the toil to which they are destined 
while upon this orb, and only preparing them for an ideal mil- 
lennium which cannot be obtained save by a total annihilation 
of all the now recognised machinery of trade and labor. 

The faults of the Herald have been noticed with sufficient 
freedom and impartiality in the course of these pages. They 
will be eradicated more easily than is suspected, because, as 
any journal advances into popular favor, it can sustain itself 
only by a spirit of manly justice and truthfulness. As it 
experiences its oWn importance, it will draw inevitably into its 
management minds fully capable of carrying out with efficiency 
the grave demands of its position, and the Herald promises to 
have a great end from an humble beginning, originated by a 
man whose history and character must now be re-surveyed 
as a close to the difficult yet not unpleasant labors which 
have produced these pages. 

The means by which candid minds may estimate truthfully 
the character of James Gordon Bennett are contained in the 



STRUGGLES WITH FORTUNE. 477 

preceding pages. Human actions should be weighed by their 
utility, and not by the brilliancy which attends them. Palissy, 
the potter, gave an example of genius by his singular perse- 
verance in his art and in self-education, which the proudest 
nobles who vied with each other to crown him wita honor never 
could display. In poverty, in misery, in the storms and dark- 
ness of night, after repeated failures and mocking disappoint- 
ments, till those who knew him reviled him for his patience, 
and called him a madman for burning at last his house-floor 
to heat his furnace, he triumphed — triumphed in producing 
that which modern art has imitated in vain ! So with Mr. 
Bennett. He is found at first a poor, wayward Scotch boy, 
induced by the history of Benjamin Franklin to try his fortunes 
upon the soil of a new country, without friends to cheer him, 
with numerous distressing incidents in his youthful life to chill 
his ambitions and his hopes, and only sustained amid the 
temptations of the world by an indomitable perseverance and 
industry, which are still characteristics of his nature, and which 
have made his name familiar to the world. 

In the early years of his life at Boston, he toiled in the hum- 
blest capacity as a laborer on the Press. He then visited 
Charleston, South Carolina, and there gathered the hints upon 
which he based the action of after years, in running expresses 
in behalf of the public, and in sending boats far away upon the 
coast to bring in the news in advance of rivals. While in 
Charleston, too, he continued the cultivation of his natural love 
of letters, and applied himself, by translating and reporting, 
for the more important labors to which he was destined by his 
ambition. 

In 1824 he arrived in New York. He is discovered im- 
mediately at work upon one of the leading political newspapers 
of that period as a reporter and editor, and occasionally as a 
collaborator for other newspapers. Besides, he is a contributor 
to literary journals of miscellaneous articles, and so distin- 
guishes himself as to exact praise from his employers and from 
the public, and to excite the jealousy of rivals. 

In 1827 he is discovered to have taken another and bolder 



478 POLITICAL TREACHERIES. 

step. He lias entered the field of political chicanery and ex- 
citement, and becomes a master-spirit in moving the machiner y 
of elections. No man originates with more rapidity than he 
the means and measures which are to be triumphant when 
brought before the people. Still poor and friendless, living 
economically upon a small salary, others who employ him 
take credit for all the good work he performs, and strive to 
make him the scapegoat for every accident or blunder between 
themselves and the public. 

The whole interim from his first residence in New York to 
the period of his return from Philadelphia in 1834, contains a 
history of struggles, trials, abuse, industry, and of patience, 
which would have weighed down and prostrated an ordinary 
mind. 

In 1833 he became the victim of political treachery, and at 
the close of the year, the target for those who had given him 
the embraces of heartless political friendships. He was a 
prominent topic both of the Whig and Democratic journals, 
who jeered at him with that heartlessness which belongs only 
to the corruption of politics. The Washington Globe, that once 
had courted and praised him, attempted to assassinate him ; 
the Intelligencer enjoyed with a mocking chuckle the indignity ; 
the Albany Argus played the traitor to him ; and by mockery 
and misrepresentations from one end of the country to the 
other the measure of injustice and oppression was filled. Al- 
most friendless and forlorn patiently awaited the condemned 
political journalist the issue of that terrible experience, so full 
of warning to all young men who are not willing to sell body 
and soul to party. In that hour the duplicity of public life was 
transparent, and the deceitfulness of those who were pretend- 
ing to be patriots, could not but make an abiding impression 
upon him who felt the cruelty of their calumnies and attacks, 
and who was determined to prosper in despite of oppression. 

" Woe for those who trample o'er a mind — ■ 
A deathless thing. They know not what they do, 
Or what they deal with ! Man perchance may bind 



JOURNALISTS AND STATESMEN. 479 

The flower his step hath bruised — or light anew 
The torch he quenches ; or to music wind 
Again the lyre-string from his touch that flew ; 
But for the soul ! Oh, tremble and beware 
To lay rude hands upon God's mysteries there !" 

Out of the wrong to the soul of Mr. Bennett it is not strange 
that great events should spring. It is easy to believe that 
from the moment he found himself apparently crushed by 
those who were indebted to him for places of public trust and 
even for the highest elevation, that he summoned all the 
strength of his spirit to rise superior to their cowardly and 
cruel injustice. 

On the 5th of May, 1835, he commenced his work of regene- 
ration by publishing the first number of the New York Herald, 
which, till it was established, was conducted wtth such pecu- 
liarities as secured it attention — peculiarities which seemed 
to have sprung from a mind resolved to carry out certain broad 
personal characteristics, which in themselves furnish the bit- 
terest satire upon the true nature of political and social life 
known to the literature of any age or country. The course 
adopted was not based on impulse. There is no excuse for it 
on that ground. It was the fruit of the most careful reflection, 
as is proved by the fact that the original prospectus has not 
been departed from in any point whatever during a period of 
twenty ^ears. The original design was to establish a journal 
which should be independent of all parties, and the influence of 
which should be grounded upon its devotion to the popular 
will — a plan which has found numerous imitators, and which is 
the only one suited to satisfy the demands of the public. 

Mr. Bennett's character is not easily defined, because the im- 
mense variety of his acts puzzle the most analytical judgment. 
The man who may be judged by published opinions or expres- 
sions following each other rapidly from day to day, year after 
year, has no such enviable lot as that of the prudent statesman 
who may select his times and seasons for speaking, or may with- 
hold his opinions till he has scrutinized them with the severest 



480 A PHRENOLOGICAL OUTLINE. 

care ; and yet how few statesmen receive the unqualified admi- 
ration of the world ! 

Examine the long catalogue of heroes ! How rarely can it 
be said with truth that any one of them was not weak or cen- 
surable ! To be a perfect man, it is necessary to have a per- 
fect organization, impressed by the perfection of education and 
of circumstances, which is an impossibility in the present condi- 
tion of the world. What says biography of the bravest? 
What says history of the wisest 1 What records have we of 
the natures of the most gifted ? Alexanders and Napoleons, 
Alfreds and Washingtons, Homers and Byrons, Constantines 
and Luthers, Richelieus and Swifts, all challenge criticism. 
Yet how important to the world have been these and thousands 
besides — how necessary to its progress, and how much are 
mankind indebted to them for present happiness ! History 
chips off the rough externe which was theirs, and presents the 
animating souls with their polished facets, to assure the world 
that it has possessed massive brilliants of intellect and genius. 

Phrenologically considered Mr. Bennett presents a very 
interesting study. His self-esteem is large — his reverence not 
deticient. Benevolence is largely developed. Wit and mirth- 
fulness are very prominent. Courage and firmness are very 
full. His destructiveness is small. Conscientiousness is pro- 
minent. The perceptive organs are exceedingly large, and 
his intuition uncommonly full. Eventuality and individuality 
are large. Causality is strongly marked. Approbgftiveness 
is full — adhesiveness moderate. Firmness is a prominent organ. 
He has order quite large. Color, size, weight, and time are 
full, and about equal to each other. Tune is small. Ideality 
is moderate. Language is not large. Memory is well deve- 
loped. The whole frontal region is massive above and below. 
The temperament is the nervous-sanguine, and easily excited 
to impulses from the sense of its own power, or from the excita- 
tion of the ruling faculties, which lie in the anterior portion of 
the brain. 

In him, benevolence and conscientiousness, acting in opposi- 
tion to self-esteem, and in harmony with approbativeness, evei 



PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT. • 481 

would make him the friend of the weak against the strong, and 
of the million against their masters. He could not be an 
aristocrat, however habitually he might look with contempt 
upon ignorance and brutal natures. He has not combativeness 
so fully developed as to incite him to hold long arguments, or 
to become a great soldier. With his perceptive organs, intui- 
tion, keen memory, and moderate comparison, together with 
the energy derived from his temperament, he would excel in 
affairs of state, or diplomacy. His attachment to family and 
home are strong, but his firmness of purpose would lead him to 
control this for the great aim of his ambition. His construc- 
tiveness is not large, but he would be swift to perceive, by his 
power of rapid discernment, the surest course of action. His 
mind is not narrow in its range, but enlarged, discriminating, 
and comprehensive. He is a close observer by taste and habit, 
and an enthusiast by nature in science, literature, art, and 
human progress. Wound his pride, and he could not but be 
wounded from his heel to the crown of his head. The combi- 
nation of the leading activities of the brain in him could pro- 
duce nothing less than that masterly moral courage which is 
his guardian angel in every crisis, howsoever troublesome or 
dangerous. 

The faculties of the intellectual and moral man are guided in 
their manifestations by individual organism, by the temperament, 
and the condition of that power which is commonly designated 
as vitality. The time has been when philosophers judged cha- 
racter chiefly by the external peculiarities of the brain, as 
already has been done ; but a later day may prove that there 
is a surer method of effecting the object, by that psychological 
measurement, the power and efficiency of which is better com- 
prehended by its results than by a knowledge of the exact 
means of its operation, and by which phrenology may be tested. 
The application of this system, it should be confessed, has not 
been neglected in making this examination. 

There is, however, for the unthinking and censorious world 
a method of weighing a man's mind, which is more satisfactory 
than the means afforded by psychology or phrenology. From 

21 



482 PRINCIPLES OF ACTION. 

the deeds of an individual, inferences may be deduced which 
will round themselves into a unit, known as character. Mr. 
Bennett's life furnishes ample store of materials for such a 
purpose, even without resorting to the history of hundreds of 
cases which could have been cited to exhibit a nature not a 
little graced by human tenderness and nobleness. His com- 
parative isolation from the world, and the want of moral 
courage in those who know how and on what grounds to do 
public justice to his merits, have been the causes of the pro- 
tracted slanders on his name. He has been in the hands of 
his enemies, and chronicled by echoes of sound which hear 
but to repeat, regardless alike of the duties of intellect or 
of the whispers of justice. That he is above even severe cen- 
sure he himself has declared to be impossible — that he has 
committed many errors of judgment he has frankly and 
manfully acknowledged. On one occasion he said in the 
Herald : 

" Since I knew myself, all the real approbation I sought for 
was my own. If my conscience was satisfied on the score of 
morals, and my ambition on the matter of talent, I always felt 
easy. On this principle I have acted from my youth up, and 
on this principle I mean to die. Nothing can disturb my 
equanimity. I know myself — so does the Almighty. Is not 
that enough ? " 

This is not the language and spirit of a common mind. It is 
the essence of a philosophy which has not deserted a man who 
has never failed to republish every slander against himself, 
and who has been conscious always that calumnies cannot out- 
live and overshadow truth. 

What to him have been the murmurs of the many, or the 
maledictions of the few — the misrepresentations of rivals, or 
the inventions of those who love to hate ? Could he do less 
than despise the empty noise of enmity, or pursue with com- 
posure the course he had resolved in his soul should be run ? 
What to him have been the blandishments of ephemeral popu- 
larity, or the blare of a shouting multitude, ready to raise him 
upon their shoulders ? Such hollow adulation was not the 



ONE MAN'S POWER. 433 

object of Ills ambition. It is the aspiration of weaker and 
less original minds. 

Mr. Bennett lias been censured most by those who have had 
most reason to fear the exercise of his independent pen. 
Where there has been pride of opinion he has humbled it, and 
selfishness has originated many censures against his course as 
a public journalist. All men have rejoiced when he has taken 
side with them, but have been mortified and wounded when 
their favorite opinions have been opposed. No man, society, 
sect, enterprise, or institution exists, that is not made proud 
when met by his favor — or that does not feel reproved and 
rebuked by his criticism. 

Is it possible that such a power should exist in one man, if 
the world at heart, or in the sincerity of judgment, entertain 
the belief that Mr. Bennett is unworthy of public confidence % 
If it be so, then is public hypocrisy more hideous in its de- 
formity than the imagination itself can picture it ; for it must 
affect every fibre of the body politic. But it is not so. The 
intellectual power of Mr. Bennett is felt ; his moral power is 
felt ; his political power is felt, and those who hate to feel it 
most are least willing to acknowledge that such power exists. 
That this is the truth, every man's conscience will assert in 
despite of every suggestion of selfishness or of prejudice. 

Have not men reason, then, to believe that character of a 
valuable kind is the basis of such influence over the public 
mind, or shall the rising generation be taught that a man of no 
character, or with the basest one, can have the ability among 
an intelligent people to guide and direct public affairs, while 
the great mass of the religious, scientific, political, and com- 
mercial world bear willing homage to his greatness, and from 
their own stores of knowledge and of learning contribute to his 
power and prosperity % 

Although Mr. Bennett might have taken a highly respecta- 
ble position as an author, yet he has been adapted more to 
Journalism, both by his self-education and by the peculiar 
characteristics of his mind, the best effects of which would have 
been lost in other literary fields. In a more elevated and purer 



484 TWENTY YEARS AGO. 

sphere of literature he would have heen comparatively ineffec- 
tive, even as the sun is powerless with its rays in the rarefied 
air of- the empyrean. 

It is possible, had he not been injured by the persecuting 
spirit of politicians, that he would not have discovered his own 
powers, or been led to a full individualization of himself. It 
has been seen that at one time he was almost in the grasp of a 
political party, in the connexion with which, success would 
have been injurious, as it would have given an entire change 
to the importance and value of his life. All he endured, how- 
ever, in the two years prior to the establishment of the Herald, 
served to temper his spirit to a keen edge and elasticity, which 
it still retains, as a good sword has derived its greatest hard- 
ness and value from being plunged, at a red heat, into chilly 
and icy currents. 

That heroism which would sacrifice the world to an idea has 
not belonged to Mr. Bennett's character. He has been an en- 
thusiast in Journalism, it is true, but even here he has not in- 
dulged in fanaticism, unless the course of the Herald in its 
younger years is to be charged with such a spirit. It seems 
more reasonable to attribute its original marked features to 
design ; for there was not any public taste twenty years ago 
for daily newspapers, and the people had to be educated into 
the habit of reading and thinking. The rulers of the people 
wrote and read, but the people neither read nor cared to read. 
Let it not be forgotten that newspapers then were an expensive 
luxury, owned and supported by politicians or sectarists, who 
found it for their interest to invest money even in losing specu- 
lations, and who deemed their hired editors to be the conve- 
nient tools of caprice and pleasure, while the public was a 
simple multitude to be cajoled and deceived on every subject 
which the selfish framers of public opinion pretended to dis- 
cuss. 

A change was required, and to create it was the work of 
nothing less than a giant ; for the avenues to the public mind 
were guarded by men who were ambitious and self-interested 
enough to control the entire financial and political machinery 



NATURALIZED AND NATIVE CITIZENS. 485 

of society. Attacks on the money-changers alone would fur- 
nish the key to unlock the gates to society and progress. It 
was the Herculean labor of Mr. Bennett to undertake these 
tasks. He saw the means by which reforms could be com- 
menced with success, and he did not hesitate to employ them 
at any and every personal peril. How he succeeded has been 
made clear to the reader, who cannot have failed to notice that 
no man could have made so many innovations as Mr. Bennett 
has wrought within the last thirty years, without exciting the 
animosity of many persons who were interested in that old 
order of things, which exploded in 1826, and again in 1836, 
revealing political and financial corruption alike disgraceful to 
society, injurious to public morality, and baneful to individual 
minds. In a word, the standard of commercial and political 
morality has been improved, although much yet remains to be 
done before a healthful mind can be satisfied with the adminis- 
tration* of financial, political, or legal power. 

A future day may increase the world's knowledge of Mr. 
Bennett's private virtues, which are not subjects to be intro- 
duced into this volume. The intellect of the reader has been 
addressed chiefly, so that the ungrounded prejudices of society 
may yield to the steady and firm demands of Justice, and a 
new era for Journalism may be invoked with propriety, at a 
period when the best, and bravest, and most patriotic minds in 
the nation are consolidating their strength and energies for 
the purpose of annihilating the corruptions of the past, and of 
renewing those halcyon days of the nation, which, earliest in 
time, should be latest in remembrance, and worthiest of imita- 
tion — days which have been revered by Mr. Bennett in his 
whole political course, from the period of his first investigations 
of American politics to the present time, and in devotion to the 
spirit of which he has set to foreigners who find a home here, 
an example that should be commended as eminently philosophi- 
cal and wise. An alien to the soil, he has beqp. no alien to the 
soul of America, and has proved that an adopted son may be 
more filial and fervent in his love, than many a native offspring 
to the Republic — true to her interests, watchful and jealous of 



486 DESIGN OF THIS WORK. 

her character, a guardian of her welfare, and a patient and 
devoted, self-constituted servant oi the people, more influential 
than any statesman, and yet as simple and unostentatious in 
his manners as the humblest citizen, great without pretensions, 
and powerful without arrogance — a proof that well-directed 
energies in the United States may bless the naturalized as well 
as the native citizen with all the rewards a reasonable ambition 
would desire or demand. 

Now, if the comparatively few men who stand individualized 
among the many millions who have been, or are, upon the 
earth, are worthy of philosophical study, surely Mr. Bennett, 
who has accomplished so much by the force of his own charac- 
ter unaided by the fortuitous intervention of circumstances, 
will not be overlooked by minds investigating original per- 
sonalities. It is useless to deny, and no one but a heedless, 
uncandid, or unthinking man will attempt to do so, tne bene- 
ficial influence that this remarkable journalist's course and 
opinions have exerted over this country, and in Europe. It is 
a truth the acknowledgment of which, as cannot be doubted, 
will increase with the light which will follow the publication 
of this work, when men, through the mists and vapors of a 
night of prejudices, made frightful and credulous by smothered 
whispers and absurd legends, shall perceive the radiance of a 
morning of calm judgment, that will prove no monster in 
human or demoniac shape has been at the door. Truth and 
^Justice will assert their hereditary sway, condemning where 
condemnation is due, but giving an impartial verdict in view of 
all the facts and circumstances which are accessory to a correct 
knowledge of the man whose works will remain as a monument 
of individual enterprise and industry, wrought amid all the 
antagonisms and enmities w^hich belong to the career of those 
who achieve greatness. 

Headers who have examined this volume with care will 
reflect that beyo#d the main purpose of the author, it has been 
designed to show, through a rapid review of thirty-five years, 
the progress of many local, political, and national events, with 
the current literature and art attending them. Themes of great 



HOPES FOR JOURNALISM. 487 

interest have been glanced at — and the record of them sug- 
gests that nobler ones might have been chronicled by a more ably 
directed diurnal Press, if its numerous guardians had been 
animated by even the present increased consciousness of the 
responsible position, true province, uncommon privileges, yet 
self-imposed and difficult duties of the high-minded, Christian 
journalist, whose power — derived from his facility of com- 
munication with his fellow-men, when controlled and tempered 
by a judgment sanctified and enlarged. by generous stores of 
learning, by a liberal conference with all spheres of valuable 
thought, by a catholic patriotism and a love of humanity, by a 
tender reverence for the lowly as well as the lofty — never can 
fail in the production of true and enduring personal eminence, 
or, as is more important, prove satisfactory and serviceable to 
a people and to mankind. 

Neither the partial hand of friendship, nor the inspiration of 
self-interest, has traced the pages of this work from the decay- 
ing records of the past. The time having arrived for the 
volume, the labor upon which was contemplated several years 
ago, all candid minds will acknowledge it is just that so pro- 
minent and venerable a journalist as Mr. Bennett should be 
rescued from the trampling feet of passion, and from the dust 
heedlessly and hurriedly scattered in the pitiful yet earnest 
struggle of Life's arena. 

The follies of men have been passed over in silence, fre- 
quently ; and those topics most valuable to society, and best 
adapted to illustrate the character of American newspaper 
literature, and to exhibit also most forcibly the extent of the 
public indebtedness to Mr. Bennett, for the improvement of it, 
have been selected for reference, for amusement, or for profit- 
able use. 

The task of unweaving the web of mingled memories, the 
threads of which are so various and curious, is now com- 
pleted ; and it is hoped will result in terminating that fierce 
and disgraceful war of Journalism, which has been so long the 
curse of the popular Press. 

In the United States of America, where the Press, in its 



488 THE CONCLUSION. 

almost limitless freedom, can be made a pure national blessing, 
by the loftiness of its own character — where this desirable dis- 
tinction for it can be achieved only when the labors of its actual 
guardians are assisted by the encouragement of an intelligent 
people, educated to frown upon the desecration of their most 
valuable institution — and where public Journalism, having 
passed through its transition state, must be dignified by the 
efforts of great minds, familiar with all the economies and 
graces of government and of society, to increase its means of 
usefulness, it is anticipated that the moral to be derived from 
these pages will not be disregarded. 

May journalists ever keep glowing in their minds those 
words in which they may find a manual of practice as efficient 
for the country and for the elevation of their own profession, as 
any conventional usages, or any code of maxims and laws : — 

IRREPROACHABLE TASTE 

CHARITY FRATERNITY JUSTICE 

THE PUBLIC GOOD. 



THE END. 



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